First Meeting of the Friends of the Key West Cemetery Meeting Scheduled

Monday, November 21st at 5:30pm

Historic Key West Cemetery Friends Committee

A Committee of the Historic Florida Keys Foundation
Dr. Diane Silvia, Executive Director

Please consider joining us at our first organizing meeting on Monday, November 21st at the Harrison Gallery at 825 White St at 5:30pm.


We would really appreciate an RSVP message. Just acknowledge if you will be at the meeting by sending a quick email to KeyWestCemeteryFriends@gmail.com. If you can't make the meeting but still wish to participate at some level let us know that too!

The purpose of this meeting is to establish our group and its volunteer members as a working committee that will be engaged with enhancing the Historic Key West Cemetery by becoming involved in one or more of the following efforts:

Participate in the Cemetery Monitoring and Education Program

• Volunteers will be trained as general guides to enlighten and inform cemetery visitors on the history of the cemetery and its natural environment. This program will generally focus its efforts on the hours when the Sexton is not on duty to assist in providing a visible presence to deter unlawful or negative activities from occurring in the cemetery. This would be both weekend days and all evenings from 5:00 -7:00pm, although volunteers may also work at other times as well if they wish. An online calendar will be available for scheduling purposes. Members of the Cemetery Friends Committee will wear clearly marked items identifying them as a cemetery "VOLUNTEER" to cemetery visitors for both security and safety reasons.

• Volunteers who wish to can also be trained as a Docent Guide by the Historic Florida Keys Foundation staff to assist them in accommodating school class and other group tour visits.

Participate in the Cemetery Maintenance and Beautification Program

• Volunteers can engage in light clean-up while on duty as a Monitor or at any time on their own. This effort will be directed at collecting bottles, cans, paper debris, etc. New Volunteers will be provided with specific instructions and guidance on the “DOs and DON’Ts” of this activity.

• Volunteers can participate in Team Cleanup Projects. These would be 3 hour cleanup sessions of limited areas of the cemetery, determined by the Sexton, that could really use our attention and help. The first of these Team Cleanup Projects will be on Saturday morning December 3rd from 8:00am to 11:00am. You can volunteer for as much or as little time as you wish during this cleanup session.

• Under the direction of Dr. Silvia, volunteers can also participate in tombstone and monument cleaning and restoration. Training and materials will be provided and the schedule for this activity will be flexible.


This is just the beginning of what we envision for the future of this committee as we look into beautification of cemetery grounds stressing the incorporation of native plants along with other traditionally important Key West flora. We also hope to initiate fundraising activities and events to raise money for restoring damaged stones and markers in accordance with the preservation plans of the Historic Florida Keys Foundation.

Again, please consider joining us at our first organizing meeting on Monday, November 21st at the Harrison Gallery at 825 White St at 5:30pm. We would really appreciate an RSVP message.

Just acknowledge if you will be at the meeting by sending a quick email to

KeyWestCemeteryFriends@gmail.com. If you can't make the meeting but still wish to participate at some level let us know that too by send an email to us.

Historic Florida Keys Foundation
Old City Hall 510 Greene Street Key West FL 33040
305-292-6718 www.historicfloridakeys.org