Odessa FBLA Cemetery Project

Members of the Odessa High School FBLA chapter have been putting their leadership skills to work once again to benefit the Odessa community. Members met with Mayor Bill Crossley and Public Works Director Rod Webster to learn about current needs at the Odessa Cemetery. The group agreed that there were several areas that could use the services of the students. First, members drafted a map of the cemetery and then began working on creating a digital version. Second, members created a cemetery website, to be linked ultimately to the town's website, containing the digital map, burial records and obituaries of all persons buried there through 2005 (this 3,000-page document created by Marge Womach had been saved to floppy disks, which have sat on the shelf for years.) Once the map has been created, members hope to work with the Odessa Lion's Club to create a waterproof display for the map to be posted at the cemetery.

The final need the group plans to address is graves that are no longer tended to by anyone. The chapter will soon post pictures of headstones thought to be unattended, in hopes that community members will volunteer to "Adopt-a-Grave."