NEWS and EVENTS

Memorial Day on the Ridges - 2010

From the time the first patient was buried in the Ridges Cemeteries in the late 1870s until recently, no Memorial Day ceremonies were ever held. Even the burials themselves were austere - with only four workers, a chaplain, and a hospital administrator in attendance. It would seem that folks with mental illnesses - buried quickly under numbered stones - were viewed as troublesome misfits, an embarrassment best forgotten.

Since 2000, the Ridges Cemeteries Committee which has been working to refurbish and beautify the cemeteries and, in so doing, restore dignity to the deceased and fight stigma against their living counterparts. And, since 2005, we have made sure that Memorial Day is celebrated there, too.

This year, our Memorial Day is shaping up to be better than ever. There will be:

• A color guard/rifle squad from the Athens VFW/American Legion; a color guard/drill squad from the Ohio University AFROTC

• Song by the Sweetadelines

• A eulogy by PTSD-wounded Vietnam Veteran Jim McGarrity

• Words and the placing of flowers on two graves by Ohio's First Lady Frances Strickland, and Ohio Department of Mental Health Director Sandra Stephenson

• The presence of the daughter, granddaughter and great grandson of Viola Rapp - one of those whose graves will be decorated

• The dedication of a memorial bench to recently-deceased Athens resident Vince Riley

• Taps

The media - including a team from WOUB that is making a documentary of the Ridges Cemeteries Project as a whole - are also expected to be out in force.

These events will begin at 1:00 PM on Monday, May 31 in Cemetery 2 at the top of Dairy Barn Hill. To get there, drive south on Dairy Lane past the Dairy Barn, around the corner to the right, and up the cemetery driveway to the right. There's plenty of parking.

Please come. Help swell the crowd. Pay your respect and, in so doing, help fight stigma against persons with mental illnesses - living and dead.