The following is written by Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow:

Did you know that Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day?  The idea was to decorate the graves of Civil War Veterans who had passed away.  While I like the idea of focusing more on memories, we are actually decorating the Sumner City Cemetery quite well for the occasion.

Every year, the Cemetery crew does a great job of making sure the already beautiful grounds look their absolute best, but this year also has some special additions.  They have been hard at work all year, paving a new entrance, replacing the decrepit fence, improving the landscaping, and adding a new section called The Heritage Farm.  This last part will be a cremation garden that both remembers those who are there as well as our region’s agricultural history.  Centered around a Farmall tractor donated by Frank Shigio, this new garden will feature orchard trees, berries, hops and rhubarb.

One of our staff recently commented that she had never really visited the Cemetery before and found it to be a beautiful, peaceful place.  Whether or not you have loved ones buried there, please take a moment this Memorial Day weekend, to stop by and just enjoy a few peaceful moments with those citizens who have gone before us.  Thursday afternoon, volunteers will be placing flags at all the graves of veterans.  We have many more Civil War veterans than you’d expect to find on the West Coast. And don’t forget to join us Monday at 10 am for a formal ceremony featuring our local VFW, current soldiers from JBLM and the Rainbow Girls.  This ceremony, plus all the care that goes into our cemetery, is one of those things that still makes Sumner special.