Photography by Lauren Allen.
The Western Heights Cemetery Association (WHCA) has announced the start of a fundraising campaign developed to address the large number of cemetery monuments in need of maintenance, protection and repairs.
WHCA is a nonprofit dedicated to managing and maintaining the Western Heights Cemetery located in West Dallas. The goal of this campaign is to raise $10,000 in the next year to address the needs of over 70 markers in the cemetery.
The repairs needed range from leveling and straightening of monuments to full-on repairs of broken stones, according to a press release. Thus far, WHCA has raised $2,500 from the board-designated operating reserves toward the campaign goal.
“One of the pillars of our organization’s mission is to preserve and restore the grave markers and relics within the cemetery,” said WHCA president Randy Osteen in a press release. “There has been some incredible work done over the past few years to restore a few badly damaged stones, but now that WHCA has been established for almost a year, the board unanimously agreed that we need to expand our efforts and make a bigger push. We are confident that our ever-growing community will help us reach our goal.”
The campaign will officially kick off at the annual fundraiser event, originally started by the previous cemetery caretaker Fort Worth Avenue Development Group, on Saturday, Nov., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, where the organization will highlight achievements over the past year, share goals for the future, and host a silent auction, along with Living Biographies, a cemetery tour, face painting, and more.
Western Heights Cemetery is located at 1617 Fort Worth Ave.
