Restored Dignity

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RANDOLPH - Teens from the Randolph Academy in Randolph and the Randolph Children's Home partnered with volunteers from the Mental Health Association of Cattaraugus County to bring dignity to the deceased at Wheater Road Cemetery in Collins on Tuesday.

The students work together in a group called the ''Timberwolves,'' a select group of students who have worked hard to achieve top status. They must follow normative culture and be willing to help others. There is a list of duties to keep their status in the Timberwolves, said Denise Luce, project director for the Randolph Academy.

The list is what motivated them to participate in Operation Dignity, stated Mrs. Sheaffer, program coordinator for the Children's Home. Students were eager to be involved in the project.

''This is part of our duties to do volunteer work,'' stated student Akil H, from Brooklyn. ''It's only right to give back to the community.'' He added, ''It really feels good to do some volunteer work and give these people back their dignity.'' Another student shared, ''I love doing this,'' adding that she took off work to be with the group. Markers are covered over with grass and students worked to unearth them, clean them with toothbrushes and tongue depressors, giving the stones new life. Luce shared that the Gowanda Historian is working to get the names of each burial site, but roadblocks have been hit in doing so. She stated that the records are locked in storage and are not allowed to be accessed.

When people were admitted to the Gowanda ''Homeopathic'' Hospital starting in 1899, they were assigned a number. They were buried with that number when they died and the number was reassigned to another patient. According to Tammy Querns of the Mental Health Association of Cattaraugus County, between 1899 and 1963 there were 1200 people buried at the cemetery with nothing more than a metal marker or cement slab with their number on it.

The markers show signs of age with rust and many are bent over. They cannot be replaced because of their historical value. Most of the markers are grown over and the cemetery looks like a field.

There are markers that date the age of those laying to rest from three days old to over a hundred, stated Querns. They are marked with either a Star of David, indicating they were of the Jewish faith, a cross to indicate they were Catholic or a wreath if they were Protestant. Many atrocities plagued the hospital at the turn of the last century.

According to Querns, if a husband no longer wanted to be with his wife, he could state that she was mentally ill and she would be locked up for the rest of her life. People with epilepsy or those that were non English speaking could be locked up for the rest of their lives, rather than having to be dealt with by society. Querns relayed the story of one woman from Romania who, at the turn of the last century, lost her baby and was distraught. She couldn't speak English and society didn't know how to deal with her so she was locked up for the rest of her life.

It was for this reason that the Mental Health Association used a grant they received to partner with the youth from the Randolph Academy. A stipulation of the grant was that it had to involve youth. Querns quoted a famous quote which states ''If we don't learn from history we are bound to repeat it.'' She stated that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Fifty years ago, the youth at the academy could have been put in the Gowanda Psychiatric Hospital and never been released, Querns stated. For this reason, they involved the youth at the academy.

We want to bring dignity to the people that are there, stated Querns of the Wheater Road Cemetery. Inmates from Collins Correctional Facility that work to maintain the cemetery found two rows of markers that were overgrown with brambles just recently. They stated that it is criminal the way the deceased were treated, according to Querns.

The program was started by the Western New York Peer Networking Group when they restored the cemetery located on Route 62. The dedication service there was attended by members of the Mental Health Association who were moved by the project and opted to take on a similar project themselves. Currently, the Wheater Road Cemetery is mowed by the Collins Correctional Facility, but it has fallen into disrepair. This is where the youth volunteers from Randolph Academy came in. Now, with the hard work of the Timberwolves, the Mental Health Association of Cattaraugus County and other volunteers, those who had lost loved ones and were buried alone with nothing but a number and a sign of their faith, will be given the dignity they deserve.