Oh! Look! Odd Fellows Cemetery awash in dandelions! Lovely, isn’t it?
Well. Not really.
Odd Fellows is a graveyard. Not a meadow. It’s overgrown. And our lawnmower has conked out. Until Friends of Lane Street Project (FoLSP) raises funds for a new one, won’t you consider stopping by to mow the front? Our last cleanup of the season in Saturday, May 23, but you can come whenever convenient.
Thank you!
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.
Another heart-filling service day at Odd Fellows Cemetery!
Special thanks to our out-of-town guests Will from Fuquay-Varina and Emily and her son Seb all the way from Brooklyn, New York!
Mark your calendars now for our April 11 and 25 service dates!
Photo courtesy of Chris Facey.
March has been a fantastic month for Lane Street Project! First, we welcomed our friends from Greenfield School:
Then, Wilson City Council adopted a positive plan for Vick Cemetery’s near future, one that included the additional ground-penetrating radar we have long urged.
Please help us keep us the momentum going by coming out to Odd Fellows Saturday, March 28, at 10:00 A.M. for our next cleanup service day. Greenfield students made tremendous progress clearing dead brush and high weeds in the interior of the cemetery. We want to continue that work, which is especially important as warming weather awakens the wisteria that infests the space. We also need to mow the front section of Odd Fellows as the grass begins to green up.
A couple of hours of work by a couple of dozen people make a tremendous difference. We hope to see you Saturday!
Excerpt from “Greenfield volunteers support cemetery cleanup,” Wilson Times, 24 March 2026; photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2026.
The weather has not been kind this cleanup season, but March is here with the promise of balmy weather. Our service days this month are the 14th and 28th.
We have specific goals we need to achieve over the second half of the season, and we encourage you to come out to lend a hand. There’s work for every level of ability, and we welcome you.
In preparation for a future project, we need to clip all the weeds and vines to the ground. Ideally, they should be low enough to keep them in check with a heavy-duty lawnmower.
We want to raze this clump of weeds between the Vick and Mincey plots.
We want to clear out the privet (the green stuff) and the dry weeds here. Try to avoid trampling the daffodils though, and watch out underfoot, there’s an old brick vault in this area.
We want to scalp this back to the tree line. Please don’t lean on grave markers.
Also, don’t cut the yucca. They were planted 100+ years ago to mark graves.
Any other little vine or sapling you see is fair game though.
Do you have a heavy-duty weed whacker? Perhaps with a brush cutter attachment? We really need your help!
Remember: SAFETY FIRST. Wear long pants and heavy boots or shoes. Gloves and goggles. There are tripping hazards at ground level, so please keep an eye out. Thank you!
It’s going to be a beautiful morning to do some good!
Weather permitting, we will wrap up our Black History Month service days on February 21, same time, same place!
Saturday will be bright and sunny! Come on out for the first of our Black History Month service days at Odd Fellows Cemetery!
Lane Street Project continues to reinforce connections and build bridges across all kinds of gaps, one armload of sticks at a time. Despite yesterday’s cold, both new and veteran volunteers showed up to chip away at this year’s mound of tasks, mixing fresh energy and seasoned experience.
Said Derrick Ruffin of his interaction with Castonoble Hooks, Briggs Sherwood, and Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid, “I was given life twice today, and I’m so thankful to have been a part of this community event.”
Cass Hooks: “Today was historic, poetic, prophetic on so many levels! You had to be there to fully understand scope and depth of today’s meeting. Dr. Rashid is truly a blessing of insight and a wealth of knowledge that she so humbly shares to the benefit of all who listen. Honored to be a part of her team in this important work. We all made discovery through conversations that revealed connections that are truly remarkable! We all came to realization that our coming together is no accident! I am sure we will write our individual narratives; my belief is God showed us today we are in the right place at the right time! Dr. Rashid lead us into powerful prayer that was both inspiring and direct! God is with us! Our theme, “We care!,” on the fence in bold letters thanks to Jen Kehrer. We continue to fight the good fight! Our ancestors matter, we are the proof. Just begun to fight and that’s the truth! My name is Castonoble — the skinny, nappy-head kid from Ashe Street! The boy who never quit. Stopped school early, but never stopped learning. Armed with truths, lies now burning. Save our cemeteries!”
Our next clean-up days are during Black History Month, February 7 and 21. We’ll be focusing on clearing the floor of the woods as much as possible, chopping everything except daffodils and yucca. There’s a large section of tall, rough, dry weeds in the center of the cemetery that needs to be hacked down, as well as the area behind the Vick plot. Please consider joining us. All are welcome!