ZELLWOOD, Fla. – This week's Getting Results Award goes to a pair of veterans who are restoring a cemetery in the town where they grew up. The historically black Tangerine Cemetery near Zellwood dates back to the 1800s, but fell into disrepair in the last few years.
Eugene Mason and Gene Reynolds spend at least two or three days a week cleaning and repairing the nearly three and a half-acre property.
"I came out at one point and this was all overgrown," Mason said, as he waves his hand across the horizon. "It used to be cared for by people in the community, but they got older and it got out of hand."
Overgrown, neglected and a site for illegal dumping, Mason said the cemetery could be found on a list of the worst cemeteries in the country.
"This is the article that really got me motivated," Mason said, pointing to an article he found on the internet.
"It says small and unkempt," he said, reading the small print. "And this article, after seeing it and coming out here I'm saying wow it really is bad. And so we began to clean it."
Mason and Reynolds both grew up in the Zellwood area and are childhood friends. They both served in the Army and returned to Central Florida after they retired. Both have family and friends buried here.
"Just tons," Reynolds said, as he piled oak tree limbs waist high. "We've literally taken over a ton of debris out of here. We've only just begun."
Mason said he's been able to compile a list of over 350 names of people buried in the Tangerine Cemetery, but the locations of most are a mystery. Documentation has been lost over time. Some headstones are little more than a small slab of stone rising an inch or two above the sand. Many have no markings at all.
The two formed a committee which meets every quarter to discuss the progress. The group plans to form a 501C-3 and raise funds to have the land surveyed with ground penetrating radar.
Any grave sites they find will get new markers. The two said they would like also like to purchase more property for expansion.