Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presented Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, with a voucher for 100 hours of Community Service within his Chesterfield Constituency and were pleased when he requested ‘Helping Hands’ for Staveley Cemetery.
On Saturday 3rd of June, congregation leader Bishop David Lawrance led members and missionaries of the Chesterfield congregation, aged from 7 to 81 years old, to clean moss from unreadable tomb stones, reassemble damaged or vandalised grave stones, plant bulbs and flower seeds and cut back branches that had obscured graves. Headstones were also photographed and uploaded to billiongraves.com making it easy for family historians to search for their family members.
Bishop Lawrance said “this Helping Hands activity gave us an opportunity to enjoy working together with our neighbours. We believe that families can be forever and genuinely respect our deceased ancestors. It has been a real pleasure today to help improve the Cemetery area and help family historians at the same time… a marvellous day.”
A Church Spokesman commented, “Neighbours and organisations who could use Helping Hands in any way can simply search www.mormon.org or visit the Church on Sheffield Road in Stonegravels."