October 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends of Lexington Odd Fellows Cemetery:

October has been a productive month in the life of LOFC. On Saturday, October 12, LOFC held its first “Fall Clean-Up Day.” Thanks to the many volunteers who raked, pruned and manicured its grounds, LOFC sparkled as a result of everyone’s hard labor. Special thanks to Southern Coffee and Janie Moses Harris for providing coffee to welcome and sustain the volunteers. Doyle Gilmore and the Lexington Boy Scout Troop 64, as well as students from Central Holmes Christian School, assisted with the clean-up. The Lexington Chamber of Commerce donated trash bags and Robert Easterling and Don Barrett provided golf carts to transport workers. It was a wonderful gathering of friends and family on an exceptionally beautiful day. Thanks to everyone’s hard work and enthusiasm, it has been suggested that we make this an annual event. We would also like to recognize and thank the LOFC Board, Kathleen Hooker Waldrop, Jerry McCrory, Lydia McClellan, Christina Hammett Chiz, Phil and Lisa Williamson and Hook’s Line & Sinker Bar for their support of the LOFC Cookout that followed the clean-up. If you would like to see the fun everyone enjoyed, photographs taken of the clean-up and party are posted on the website.

A further note of thanks should be given to Richard Hammett for spreading fire ant chemical control on the cemetery grounds. If you have visited LOFC in the past year, you have probably encountered those pesky and annoying insects. Thanks to Richard, their days are numbered, so a huge “shout out” to Richard for volunteering his time and equipment. Be sure to view on the website the great photo of Richard wearing a straw hat while perched on his tractor.

Thus far, LOFC has received donations totaling $188,642.53 from 257 donors, with the average donation being $734.02. That means that we need to raise $11,357.47 in order to reach our goal $200,000, so that we can maximize the full impact of the $200,000 matching donation by our anonymous donor. Time is running out, so please help us reach this goal before the end of the year. If you gave in 2018, please consider making a second donation before the end of 2019, as your donation will be tax deductible pursuant to our 501(c)13 status. If you have not given, please consider donating, no matter how large or small. We have come a long way since we took over the care and maintenance of LOFC in June 2018, but we still have a way to go. Maintaining and preserving the cemetery where our ancestors are buried is an expensive project. We cannot do it alone. We need your help!

You can visit our website and make an on-line donation using a credit card, or you may send a check made payable to LOFC, Post Office Box 1213, Lexington, MS 39095. If you are receiving this newsletter, it is because you are considered a Friend of LOFC. Please become a Donor as well.

Amanda Povall Tailyour, Editor