New plans in place to care for Ruskin Memorial Park
Ruskin’s founders couldn’t have imagined that donating land to the community to use for the common good could ever cause problems.
Yet as time went on, and the Common Good Society ceased to exist, and kind-hearted volunteers were called on to care for land that belonged to everyone — yet to no one in particular.
Now a forward-thinking group wants to solve the problem of caring for the Ruskin Memorial Park once and for all, and it has found a way to accomplish it.
The park, located at the south end of First Street S.W., on a bluff high above the Little Manatee River, was simply called Ruskin Cemetery until it was rededicated in 1964 and the name was changed. Plots there contain the final remains of many of the area’s founding families, including the Dickmans. The Dickman plot is especially interesting because of the inscription on their first family gravestone, dated 1879, that says, “Founders and Builders who dared to try something new, and built Ruskin out of a wilderness.”
Millers and Councils and Leiseys and Wallaces were also part of those early settlers who are buried there. The names are familiar because many of their descendants are still around and active in today’s community affairs.
When the 10 acres for the cemetery were donated more than 100 years ago, families of the deceased cared for plots, and most likely assumed it would always be that way.
But with busy schedules and families spreading out all over the globe, caring for plots of the deceased often fell by the wayside and the cemetery gradually hit a state of major disrepair.
Now, at the end of the third year of twice-annual cleanups organized by the Ruskin Woman’s Club Cemetery Project, community leaders have found a way for maintaining the cemetery in the future — perpetually.
The grand kick-off on Oct. 3 of the Challenge Fund between community organizers and the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay was a by-invitation-only event to explain the process needed to put the plan in place.
The challenge to bring the message to other community groups these people are involved in was issued to approximately 40 people in attendance by speakers who explained how the project will work.
Deb Adams and Debbie Bonebrake, co-chairwomen of the Cemetery Project of the Ruskin Woman’s Club, and Mike Langjahr, owner of the Sun City Center Funeral Home, told the group how for years Ruskin resident Wayne Harris ran the cemetery practically bare-handed with the help of a few volunteers, but had to quit a few years ago due to health concerns.
The Woman’s Club picked up the ball and has even received honors from the Federation of Woman’s Clubs for its conservation efforts.
The “Debs,” as the project leaders were referred to throughout the event, helped organize a new Cemetery Project group, who formed a new board. Its first act was to update the antiquated bylaws.
“The cemetery was always a corporation,” said Linda Badgerow, who is treasurer, in a telephone interview the day after the event.
The two “Debs” met with leaders of the Community Foundation, two of whom were present to speak at the Cultural Center.
Marlene Spalten, president and CEO, and Denise O’Brien, vice president of the Community Foundation’s Donor Relations, each spoke about how the Foundation operates and told of the different ways to make sure a monetary, tax-deductible gift can be donated.
The principal of the gifts is never used, just the investment income, making sure the fund continues to grow and is always available to help surrounding communities, Spalten said.
“The Challenge Fund was established to encourage philanthropy and endowments,” said Spalten. “This ensures that the money will always be there for the causes it was donated.”
Some gifts are given with a specific target recipient — while others may go to projects deemed by the Foundation Board to be worthy and fit in its guidelines.
“So far donors have contributed more than 4 million to the Challenge Fund to form a matching kitty for projects like the one here in your community,” O’Brien added.
The Woman’s Club Cemetery Project Board has identified things that need perpetual care, such as mowing and periodic cleanup and has set its first goal at $100,000, explained Deb Adams.
How this will work is if the community can raise $75,000 by July 2016 then the Foundation will add $25,000 to the fund.
Neither the Woman’s Club nor the Foundation say that will be the end of fundraising.
“We plan to keep going,” said Bonebrake.
Foundation rules say that if a project is ongoing, groups may file another application six months after the first goal is met, Spalten said.
Badgerow [the treasurer] has moved the headquarters to the Dickman Realty building on the corner of U.S. 41 and Shell Point Road, where she has worked as a Realtor for many years and has also overseen the money — and often the business of the cemetery — as a volunteer.
Many have offered cleanup services free over the years, as the group tries to educate people whose deceased family members rest there, she explained.
One who has donated much time and effort is the mowing and landscaping service of Ed Parrish of Ruskin.
“We couldn’t pay him for most of 2012,” said Bonebrake. “But he came out regularly and did it anyway.”
Thankfully, people have begun to realize the cemetery is not full and can still sell grave plots and also, with the economy a little better in 2013, the group has been able to pay Parrish for his work.
“People don’t realize the state has rules of what can be on gravesites for a reason,” said Bonebrake. “Ed spends as much time pulling the wires from plastic flower arrangements out of his mower blades as he does mowing, and also when people put loose rock down, he can hit them and they can fly up into the air and break something or hurt someone.”
That is why the State of Florida has auditors who check out funeral homes and cemeteries, added Lanjahar. An auditor is due to inspect the cemetery again at the end of October.
Besides mowing, immediate needs the board hopes to arrange are painting the gazebo and pavement repair, Lanjahar said. “We want to get people who do this kind of work to give of their time to help us get things in order.”
The group plans to have a website soon, but until then, information may be obtained from Bonbrake at 813-892-7235 or Adams at deb.adams@bmo.com.
Information about finances can be requested from Badgerow at Dickman Realty, (813) 645-3211 and the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay may be seen at http://www.cftampabay.org.