- Aly Boltman
Owen Sound people, I need your help for a Sun Times photograph at Greenwood Cemetery TOMORROW (Sunday, Dec. 16th) at 3:40 pm and to help get input for the related project. Please meet in front of the small brick chapel on the east side of the cemetery. This is open to anyone and everyone.
No one is selling anything, anyone can get involved to help preserve Owen Sound's history and give their opinions about a new monument for the cemetery.
This past year, I led two historical cemetery tours this year at Greenwood. Both tours ended at Potter's Field where we talked about the 1200+ people buried in one open area, all without tombstones to mark their lives or their passing. Almost without exception, these people were some of our community's most vulnerable - the poor, the abandoned, the outcasts, and hundreds of stillborn, newborn or toddler children of those without means.
The field also contains the remains of a huge percentage of Owen Sound's Black community, either escaped slaves or their descendants, those who came up from the US through the Underground Railroad.
A donor has come forward as a result of these tours, a citizen who has offered to personally fund the creation of a substantial Potter's Field monument at his own cost. The City of Owen Sound has been extremely supportive of this project and is working cooperatively to see this project to completion.
If you come out tomorrow for the photo, the sheer mass of people standing together will help illustrate the immensity of this project, the 1200+ people under our feet we're for whom we are trying to give a voice.
And there is more - we have launched a survey to get public input about what the monument should or could be. Whether or not you can come for the photo tomorrow, please share this message, and specifically, this LINK to encourage the public to take this survey and learn more about the project. We want this monument to be a community effort - everyone's opinions count! You can learn more about the project by opening the survey. Thank you in advance for your help! https://www.owensound.ca/en/exploring/potters_field.aspx Aly Boltman