A group of Mayer Electric Supply Montgomery, Ala., associates and their families spent their Memorial Day helping to clean up around the local community. A few blocks down the road from the Mayer-Montgomery Adams Avenue location is the Lincoln Cemetery. Glenn Ford, the Mayer branch manager, and other associates drove by this cemetery one afternoon and saw what terrible condition it was in so Ford decided to check into it.
He found the Lincoln Cemetery to be over 100 years old and originally designated as an African-American cemetery. The owners of the cemetery, who were responsible for maintaining the cemetery, could not be found. Compounding the problem is the fact that it was only designed to hold 700 graves and there are now over 6,000. With no one to manage the cemetery, Ford discussed it with his fellow Mayer-Montgomery team members and they took it upon themselves to do something.
The team pitched in to mow and trim the cemetery and hauled off more than 50 55-gallon bags of cuttings and trash.
Ford explained the good feelings the work generated. “I could not be more proud of our team,” Ford said. “We chose Memorial Day weekend not knowing that in our cleanup we would find so many graves with markers showing they belonged to veterans that had served in WWII and Korea. That just made it even more special. We were truly honored to show them just a bit of dignity and respect they deserve.”