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Friends of Oakwood Cemetery - Inc. Cemetery 272-7520, Friends 237-2188 Who are The Friends of Oakwood Cemetery The Friends are a group of volunteers and supporters who formally organized in October 1998. The actual origin was during August and September with about 10 Rensselaer County Cornell Co-operative Extension volunteer Master Gardeners. They asked the cemetery Board of Trustees for permission to try a pilot brush-cutting project. When that was successful, they asked the Trustees for permisson to form "The Friends". The purpose of The Friends is to rejuvenate and restore Oakwood Cemetery to its original and historic beauty and importance. It is an outdoor sculpture garden and a living history museum of national significance. And it is still a working cemetery. The volunteers who have joined us come from as far away as Schenectady and Grafton. We have financial supporters from as far away as Syracuse. About 50 of us who were community volunteers in the cemetery during the fall worked very hard, but laughed a great deal, and learned a great deal of history. This spring we will cut brush again, starting with the fence along Oakwood Avenue. We began this last fall, so that cars passing by could see into the cemetery and realize that it is still a working cemetery and beautiful. We invited the NYS National Guard in to help us cut brush and they have worked wonders. It is our hope that over time this restoring will raise the revenues from lot sales, burials and cremations and allow the cemetery to hire a fourth full-time employee. Upcoming Events
Call us at 237-2188 for exact dates. Won't you consider joining and helping us? Questions we are often asked. Is there still room for me an my family if we decided we wanted to buy plots there? Absolutely! Although Oakwood has about 56,000 burials, there is room for literally hundreds of vears of additional burials. So yes. go ahead and choose Oakwood as your final resting place. Why couldn the staff have cut down the brush and trees which are growing over so many of the graves and monuments? During the 1970's and 1980's, Oakwood Cemetery ran into severe financial difficulties, in part from increased competition. Because of that, the cemetery had to cut expenses drastically, including slashing its staff. Today there are only three permanent, full-time staff members to maintian a cemetery of 600+ acres 29 miles of road, and about 56,000 graves. They must do all the burials, cremations, road maintenance etc., and huge amounts paperwork. In the summer there are 5-7 temporary grass-cutters, but the cemetery is so large that it takes them three weeks to get around it. Thus, The Friends was born, to help cut brush, to raise public awareness fo the cemeterv as a national jewel and as a working cemetery. We view it as a long-term project over the next 10-20 years. In cooperation with Troy United Ink Corp., a not-for-profit corporation 
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