One Central Georgia man is trying to preserve Macon’s historic Rose Hill Cemetery the proper way, and you can help on Saturday.
Joey Fernandez and Odessa Walker got an early start restoring the Gresham plot in the cemetery.
"We will finish at about 5-6 p.m. and that's just setting it, cleaning it some more, putting fiberglass dowels in the holes here that give it extra support," Fernandez said about his work on the headstone.
The whole project began after stumbling on an unsightly plot.
"For some reason I was just drawn this way and when I came over here and walked this way, this one was kicked over, I was mad," Walker said pointing to one of the Gresham stones.
Fernandez and Walker have worked to restore a few other plots in Rose Hill, and want others to learn how to properly do so by holding a cleanup event on Saturday, August 10.
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"We'll come to the Gresham family site and we are going to do a 'do no harm' cleaning event on the marble and the limestone," Fernandez said.
He learned these no harm tactics at historic monument preservationist courses in Savannah.
"Ammonia solution; it's been tested on historic stone," Fernandez said. "Bleach is not good on historic stone, it causes sugaring, it breaks up the molecules in the silica and it destroys the stone, and it's irreversible."
The hope is that people leave Saturday afternoon learning something new.
"I'm excited how the other people are going to get excited when they actually see the process," Walker said.
It's all part of a process that will help keep history alive for years to come.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Rose Hill Cemetery on Saturday, August 10.
Breakfast will be provided and all volunteers will be entered for a chance to win a one-night stay at the 1842 bed and breakfast built by John Gresham himself.