CAMPAIGN 2025
While the Mt. Zion Cemetery Association will exist in perpetuity, completing as many improvements as possible within the next several years will be a key strategy for setting the cemetery on a stable course for the years to come. Roughly speaking, these improvements will fall into four departments: organizational, financial, horticultural, and architectural. Hopefully, as many improvements as possible will be completed by 2025, the 150th anniversary of the earliest confirmed burial in the cemetery.
PAST IMPROVEMENTS (2016-2020)
Organizational: Initiative Fractal organization developed to spearhead improvements; IF website and Facebook page renovated and expanded for Mt. Zion Cemetery Association use; cemetery association trustees recruited
Financial: Cemetery improvements completed with private funds and donated materials & labor; separate checking account set up; end-of-year fundraisers held 2018-2020
Horticultural: 2,000+ flower bulbs and a dozen trees planted in the cemetery; mowing provided 2018-2020 by Bill Young; east side landscaping added, with 61 shrubs planted and black metal edging installed
Architectural: Majority of gravestones in the cemetery cleaned with D/2 Biological Solution; a third of stones repaired in some way; new iron fencing installed on east side of cemetery and around three plots
POTENTIAL FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS (2021-2025)
2021-2023: Pay for continued watering of 2018 trees and shrubs
2021: Adopt bylaws for the cemetery association
2021: Send in National Register of Historic Places nomination form
2021: Get water faucet installed at northwest corner of cemetery
2021: Create revised legal deed for the cemetery
2021: Goal of $4000 income per year, $2000 each for short-term and endowment
2021: Plant 2,000 additional spring flowering bulbs in the cemetery
2022: Install new entrance gateway
2023: Touch up paint on iron fences
2024: Pay for resetting six large gravestones: John Wesley Finley, Alfred Bagley, Claiborne S. Pinnell, W. A. Kizzia, John A. Pope, John S. Pinnell
2025: 150th anniversary of the cemetery; goal of $10,000 in endowment
LONG-TERM MILESTONES (2026-?)
2030: Goal of three years’ supply of funds in short-term account
2050: Goal of $10,000 in short-term account, $50,000 in endowment
2075: 200th anniversary of the cemetery; goal of $75,000 in endowment