Holley students raise funds to fix chapel at Hillside Cemetery

Photos by Kristina Gabalski – The music room at Holley Elementary School was bustling with activity late Tuesday afternoon as members of the school’s Student Council gathered to make collection boxes for this year’s community project, which will raise funds for the restoration of the historic chapel in Hillside Cemetery in Clarendon.

HOLLEY – Members of the Holley Elementary School Student Council got busy Tuesday afternoon making containers for this year’s community project: raising money for the Hillside Cemetery Chapel Restoration Fund.

The containers – black boxes with a photo of the chapel and a “stained-glass window” decorated by the students – will be placed at local businesses allowing community members to make monetary donations.

Decorated collection boxes line up in preparation for being distributed around the Holley community.

Last year the community project raised more than $1,000 for the Holley Community Free Library roof project. Student Council Advisor Sally Martin says students will be able to place containers themselves again this year.

“Last year we went out and went business to business,” she says, and explains that the students approached business owners themselves regarding to place the containers.

Emma Brady, a 4th-grader at Holley Elementary, holds the collection box she decorated on Tuesday.

Retired Holley art teacher Larry Dabney as well as members of the Clarendon Historical Society attended the workshop to assist students with the project.

“This is great,” Clarendon Historical Society member Erin Anheier said. “It’s really wonderful that the students have gotten involved and that they are thinking about the community.”

Fifth-graders Makayla Evans (left) and Tia Hoffarth (right), members of the Holley Elementary School Student Council, work to decorate collection boxes that will be placed around the Holley community.

Melissa Ierlan is the Clarendon town historian and a member of the Holley Board of Education. She called the project is “cool” and “the kids can see what they are supporting. They can see that they are doing some good.”

The containers are one part of a fund-raising effort by students for the chapel. Additional events may include a read-a-thon or a scavenger hunt. The fundraising effort will continue through the end of the school year.

Members of the Student Council decorate collection boxes for this year’s community project, which will raise funds for the Hillside Cemetery Chapel Restoration Fund.

Holley 6th-grader Thomas Dobri holds the collection box he decorated. The boxes each feature a photo of the Hillside Cemetery Chapel and a stained-glass window decorated by the students. Each stained-glass window has a slightly different pattern.