Thoughts with Tim: Thanks for helping the Elm Grove Chapel
As many of you who know me are aware, I have a pet project here in town. I have been working with a number of local organizations to repair Elm Grove Chapel. Numerous people I talk to don’t even know there is a chapel in Elm Grove Cemetery, but there is. It is a beautiful chapel that has been out of use for decades. The only reason I know it is there is because of how much time I spend in Elm Grove Cemetery alongside Miller or Cisco funeral home. I started asking questions and found out that the chapel is over 120 years old! The date above the door says 1901.
The chapel needed some attention and TLC. Well, thanks to a number of organizations around town and some very generous donors, the work on the chapel is going to swing into action. We hope to have it prepared for the bicentennial celebrations this summer. A big event will take place at the chapel during the Memorial Day parade.
The parade will go out to the chapel for an address honoring veterans in our community as well as the veterans buried at Elm Grove going all the way back to the Civil War.
Working on this project has gotten me in touch with many organizations here in town, several of which I would never know about had I not taken on this project. Some of these organizations you may not even be aware exist, but they are doing great work here in this town. I would like to use this week’s article to thank a number of people who have made the Elm Grove Chapel project a reality.
First, I would like to thank the ministerial association. This is where the scope of the project started to take shape. We wanted to contribute to the community and be a part of the bicentennial celebration. Fixing up the chapel was a great community project that did not look like it came from one individual church. It was a joint effort, and
I appreciate their support.
The next organization that has taken on a big share of the work and have heard me championing this project for the past year is St Marys Rotary. A large part of the funding and the initial investment came from them. Thank you for being willing to see the possibility in this old building and allowing your crazy president to talk you into taking the project on.
The Elm Grove Cemetery Board has been great to work with, and they seem excited about doing something with the old chapel. I don’t need to tell anyone who has been out there that Elm Grove is a beautiful and well-kept cemetery. Thank you for allowing us to open the doors to the chapel and see if we can make it be the place it was built to be back in the early 1900’s.
We had one very generous benefactor who has made arrangements to see that the chapel will be well taken care of for generations. Out of respect, I am not going to name who it was, but they know who they are and I am forever in your debt as well as all of those who will have this chapel for generations to come.
I would also like to say thank you to Trent Mullins who sprayed the roof and it looks like we have the crud growing on it killed. I would like to thank Craig Huwer for replacing the back door and Paint Bros. for the paint they will be putting outside and inside the chapel, making it look even more beautiful than it already does. It is our hope to have the door installed and the facility painted before Memorial Day. We will need Mother Nature to cooperate with us to get that goal met.
If you would like to see the chapel as it is now, we are planning to have a Sunrise Service on Easter Sunday (April 9) at 7:00 a.m. and everyone is welcome. Also, please plan to join us for the Memorial Day Parade that goes out to the Elm Grove Chapel. It is our hope that the project will be completed by then and we can show it off in all of its glory.
There is plenty to be upset about in our world today, but as this chapel project comes together with so many people involved to make it a reality, I am reminded of what can be accomplish when we work together.