At the Dean hill Cemetery in Orrington, volunteers have been helping keep some of the town's history alive, by honoring those who have passed.

Every year, acid rain eats away at the gravestones. But with a bit of elbow grease, and a product used to maintain the stones at Arlington National Cemetery called D2, folks are helping to return the stones closer to what they once were.

Judith Frost Gillis, president of the Orrington Historical Society, said this to FOX-22:

...we brush the stones, we wet them down with D2 and water, and just keep rinsing and doing this, scrubbing over and over again.

Sadly, all that hard work isn't immediate. For some stones, it may take several treatments before it starts to look new again. These volunteers have been at it for three years, so it seems to be a labor of love, more than anything.

But they also point out, that quicker doesn't necessarily mean better. They use the D2 product because it does the job gently. Power washers or harsh chemicals could simply damage the stones more, and likely be irreversible.

If you would like to volunteer to help out in Orrington, you can reach out to them at their Facebook page. Or maybe even consider starting something like this in a town you live in, because preserving the past is important to everyone.

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