Halloween Special: A Sinking Cemetery and a Nonprofit

Ruth McCambridge

October 31, 2014

October 29, 2014; Sun Herald (Associated Press)

In Leeville, Louisiana, the LeFort Cemetery has finally completely sunk and the nonprofit group that had been trying to save it has given up the ghost.

Launch Leeville was hoping to construct a 280-foot-long bulkhead to save the 25 graves from total submersion, but time ran out after after the local coastal zone management board asked for the application to be held.

“We were trying to do this out of respect for those who had a grave that is now a watery grave,” said Launch Leeville founder Janet Rhodus.

According to the Sun Herald, on this October 31st, “Only the tops of a handful of wrecked vaults show above salty water.”—Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: Management Nonprofit News Policy

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