HAMPTON, Va. — Pleasant Shade Cemetery in Hampton was a little less overgrown Tuesday thanks to a team of volunteers.
One of those volunteers was Ricky Banks. He was happy to help clean up the cemetery.
“I ride by this street here about twice a week. I kept looking at it and looking at it and looking at it. I said, ‘I wonder, is anybody taking care of that?’" said Banks.
He owns a lawn care company and canceled all of his other jobs for the day so he could spend the day working in the cemetery.
“After I saw the story that you had with the family, that’s when I decided to step in and just donate my time to try to help clean it up some," Banks explained.
On July 17 News 3 interviewed Ruby Betts, who has family buried at the cemetery. She reached out to WTKR because she was concerned about how overgrown the cemetery had gotten.
Watch: Historic African American cemetery in Suffolk needs community effort to preserve hundreds of graves
News 3 talked with her again at the cemetery as Banks and his team were working.
“I can’t tell you how happy my heart is right now," Betts said, smiling.
Seeing the work, she said, is a blessing.
Watch: Councilman, youth cadets team up to clean African American cemetery in Suffolk
“This has been a dream of mine all summer. It’s been worrying me. It’s been so heavy on my heart to see this cemetery like this. He’s such a blessing to have reached out to us, all because of you and helping us get this on air. News Channel 3! Yay!” said Betts.
Even better, more help was potentially on the way as of Tuesday. Betts’ daughter, Keisha Howard, said a local funeral home saw the story and was considering organizing a concert to raise money for clean up work and someone saw the story and made a Facebook post to try to organize volunteers for a clean up.
“We’re going to have some conversations with him and maybe all of us, as one big community, we can finally get something done," Howard said.
Watch: Efforts underway across the U.S. to uncover and preserve Black cemeteries
Cleaning up the nearly 20 acre cemetery, and keeping it maintained, will take a community effort. In July, News 3 learned the city can’t clean it up and then bill the owner because the city can’t track down the owner.
News 3 also tried to track them down, but despite calling numerous numbers and sending e-mails to numerous accounts never got a response.
The city encourages anyone with concerns to reach out to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and try to get grant funding for the maintenance.
Watch: Juvenile suspect identified in Jewish Cemetery of the Peninsula vandalism case
Banks said seeing the cemetery in better shape puts a smile on his face.
“I’m not out here for fame and fortune, to make myself look good. I’m out here because I want to help. I want to be a part of this community, to make it look beautiful," said Banks.
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