Foundation working to improve roads at Woodland Cemetery

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Roughly 30,000 African Americans are buried at Woodland Cemetery, but not everyone can easily get to their loved one’s graves because of how bad the roads are.

The Woodland Restoration Foundation is trying to change that.

”Two cars should be able to pass on any of these roads, and most places is one, and the other particular part is the potholes and the mess,” said foundation board member Patricia Bozeman.

Volunteers have spent several years cleaning up the cemetery. It used to look much worse than it does now.

“The only thing you could see to the left of the gate was the Arthur Ashe memorial because everything else was overgrown. The grass was probably as tall as me, trees everywhere branches,” explained volunteer Tom Mraz.

The cemetery has been open since 1917 and has fallen into disrepair over the years. While volunteers have made improvements, there’s still a long way to go.

That’s where the Capitol Building Campaign comes in. It’s part of an effort to raise 1.2 million dollars to repair the roads. That money would also help the restoration foundation fix up the chapel and open up an education center for the community, especially for students.

”The education center, which will allow the community to find out so much more about the contributions of the people who are buried here,” Bozeman said.

If they can raise that money, they want to start making those improvements immediately.

”We’re getting there, we’re getting there, but it takes a village to help us,” Mraz said.

If you’re interested in donating to the campaign, you can do so on their main website.

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