LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For years, a four-acre cemetery near the Taylor Berry neighborhood has been untouched for years, overgrown with grass nearly 8 feet tall. 

Many of those in the Schardein Cemetery are veterans, whose headstones were covered and some were destroyed. 

As of Monday, the majority of the cemetery on 7th Street is now cleared, and relatives said it's not a day too soon. 

Schardein Cemetery

Crews with Dismas Charities mow the tall grass at Schardein Cemetery. 

Dismas Charities, a nonprofit that was founded in Louisville, acts as a re-entry point for over 8,000 men and women returning to society from state and federal prisons each year, according to its website.

The nonprofit has started clearing and taking care of Schardein Cemetery. 

"There's no body that really takes care of it," Allen Perkins, with Dismas Charities, said. "We have some volunteers that came out here on their own to do it but they really don't have the equipment like we do."

Through Dismas Charities' community custody work release program, former inmates are now working to beautify the former family property that had been absorbed by the state. 

Schardein Cemetery

Some of the mowed patches at Schardein Cemetery.

"If we see a tombstone that is overturned, we pick it up, we try to keep them cleaned off as much as we possibly can and we really try to take care of them the best we can," Perkins said.

Lonie Richey and his sister Penny Richey have grandparents buried at Schardein Cemetery.  

"Sad. No property should look like this is," Lonie Richey said. "Dead or alive. Property should not be like this." 

Cemetery

Some of the grass at Schardein Cemetery was 8ft. tall. 

The Richeys arrived on Monday with their own weed eaters, and were shocked to see volunteer crews taking care of the property.

"It's kinda gone by the wayside over the years but people are starting to take interest in some of our older cemeteries that have been forgotten," Perkins said. 

Volunteers are also stepping up to help Greenwood and Eastern cemeteries, which have also been neglected in Louisville. 

Dismas Charities plans on taking care of Schardein Cemetery at least once a month to maintain the grounds — something the Richeys said is an act of love.

"You don't hear a lot of good anymore and these are good people so we'd like to give our thanks to them and our blessing to them," Penny Richey said. 

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