To the editor:

I would like to give a shout out to the good people of Fort Dodge. On May 23, my wife and I went to Memorial Park Cemetery to decorate family graves. I was very upset that the grass was 8 to 10 inches tall and a lot of headstones were covered with grass. I vented on Facebook. On May 24, someone posted that the owner was having a health problem. On May 25, Bradley Edgerton asked for people to come out with their mowers and help out. I showed up at 10:30 Monday morning and saw one young man mowing the north end of the park. I found out later that it was Ryan Vanderpool and that he had started at 6:30 a.m. and finished up at 6.

I mowed with my push mower a 50-foot path on the east side and mowed around the flag pole. At 12:30 I went to Walmart and asked if they would donate a flag and they said yes. Got back to the park and four families with riding mowers and weed trimmers had showed up. Doug Utley and his wife were there to help. Doug’s wife helped me put the flag up, it was really windy.

I did not get any other names. But it was great to see what the people of Fort Dodge can do when the chips are down.

David Powell

Fort Dodge