Vermont SCR 2: Senate concurrent resolution honoring former Vermont State Police Major Glenn Hall for three decades of exemplary public service

Bill Text

R-56 Page 1 of 1
2025

VT LEG #382081 v.1
No. R-56. Senate concurrent resolution honoring the Vermont Old Cemetery
Association.
(S.C.R.2)
Offered By Senators Weeks, Collamore, Williams, Baruth, Bongartz, Chittenden,
Clarkson, Douglass, Gulick, Hardy, Hashim, Ingalls, Lyons, Major, Norris, Perchlik, and
Watson,
Offered By All Members of the House,
Whereas, the first known established cemeteries in Vermont are now into their third
century serving as a dignified final abode for the deceased, and
Whereas, in 1958, University of Vermont Professor Leon Dean formalized his passion
for the State’s earliest established cemeteries when he established the Vermont Old
Cemetery Association (VOCA), and
Whereas, VOCA offers specific cemetery assistance in the form of financial grants,
volunteer labor, and site guidance, and more broadly, the organization educates the public
on the centrality of Vermont’s long-enduring cemeteries, and
Whereas, the awarding of direct monetary support to local cemetery associations and
municipalities began in 1974, with a modest $25.00 donation to the Town of Halifax, and
since then, the organization has issued over $60,000.00 in financial grants for the
restoration of old cemeteries, and
Whereas, hundreds of old Vermont cemeteries have benefited from VOCA’s volunteer
guidance and restoration services that bring a new beauty and serenity to these cemeteries,
and these grants save local cemetery associations and municipalities expenses that might
otherwise not be affordable, and
Whereas, VOCA is especially focused on the dignity of veterans’ burials through
spearheading the enactment of laws ensuring their respectful interment, replacing damaged
monuments, and establishing new ones for those veterans who were never properly
honored, and
Whereas, as a publisher, VOCA’s informative quarterly newsletter presents
preservation advice and cemetery law updates; the organization’s book, Burial Grounds of
Vermont, is a comprehensive resource for the history and status of most Vermont
cemeteries; and its school course guide, Stones and Bones, is a great resource for
incorporating our State’s old cemeteries into a school’s Vermont history curriculum, and
Whereas, VOCA has served as a model for similar cemetery restoration initiatives in
other states, now therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the General Assembly honors the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, and be it
further
Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to
the Vermont Old Cemetery Association.