September 2019 Newsletter

Dear Friends of Lexington Odd Fellows Cemetery:

Calling All Volunteers: On Saturday, October 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. there will be a Clean-Up Day at LOFC. All are invited to join the effort to further beautify our beloved cemetery. If you are willing and able to join this worthwhile project, please dress appropriately with work gloves and a hat. There will be coolers of bottled water as well as insect repellent and sunscreen available. The Lexington Chamber of Commerce is providing plastic garbage bags for the collection of trash. If you have access to any of the following tools, please bring weed-eaters, bushwhackers, clippers, outdoor brooms, and rakes. There will be team captains to assign you a task and an area in which to work. It should be a fun and productive day, so plan to be a part of it. After the clean-up, there will be at a party at Hook’s Line & Sinker off the Lexington Square beginning at 5:00 p.m. Jerry and Jack McCrory are providing the grills for the cookout of hot dogs, hamburgers, and sausages. All volunteers are invited to join in the party.

Further on the topic of preserving and beautifying our beloved cemetery, it has come to the attention of the Board that some grave sites contain items that are not allowed as set forth in our Rules and Regulations, which are posted on our website. Clearly, we all grieve in our separate ways. Many want to honor their loved ones in special and unique ways. However, in order to preserve the natural beauty and serenity of LOFC, the Board passed and adopted the Rules and Regulations to further this goal. We encourage everyone to review them on the website, so that your family graves are complying. In order to give families an opportunity to remove any unauthorized items, it was agreed at the August Board Meeting that families have until January 1, 2020, to remove any unauthorized items. After that date unauthorized items will be removed by Maintenance.

Since LOFC took over the ownership of Odd Fellows we have received donations totaling $178.652.53 from 247 donors, with the average donation being $723.29. Many of the donors are repeat donors, meaning that they donate on a continuing basis. The names of those generous donors are posted on our website under “Donors.” We invite you to take the time to review the names of our Donors and when you next meet them, please thank them for being a part of this worthwhile project. In order to receive the full impact of the second $100,000 of the matching gift by our anonymous donor, we need to raise $21,347.47. Shortly, we enter the fourth quarter of 2019, so this is an ambitious goal to reach. Therefore, it is critical that those of you who have not donated, please consider joining this effort to save our beloved cemetery with a donation, whatever the amount. It would be a crying shame if we are unable to realize the full impact of the generous matching gift. You can [visit our website and make an on-line donation]({{ site_url }}donate/) 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 who has family buried in LOFC. Please become a Donor as well.

Amanda Povall Tailyour, Editor