Volunteers help repair West Bridgewater cemetery after vandalism

Residents of West Bridgewater spent their Saturday volunteering time, equipment, and energy after vandals targeted a local cemetery.

Each stone vandalized at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, 33 in total, has a story and volunteers Saturday wanted to restore what was destroyed.

"None of these people have relatives buried here. So they're all kind people that stepped forward to do a good deed," said Selectman Nancy Maloney.

"There's a stone here, a little girl who was buried going through town on the underground railroad, and there are a lot of war veterans here...One of the stones they put up here today was an Andersonville pow from the Civil War," said Lauren Delaney, superintendent of the cemetery.

This isn't the first time the Pleasant Hill Cemetery has been vandalized. It has been hit four times previously, with vandals knocking over or breaking the headstones. This time, nine of the 33 targeted were completely broken.

Volunteers worked to upright the fallen stones, but the broken ones will have to be repaired in the spring.

"It's nice after all the devastation up here that makes you question humanity to see that, to remind you, there is still good out there. There's still people with heart," said Delaney.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with costs since many of the headstones vandalized date back to the 1800s.

Cox Media Group