Hi Listers, I felt a need to pass this onto the lists. This was shared with the WIGenweb mailing list for county coordinators. This appeared in the Sunday Newspaper in Kenosha (I believe it was Kenosha). This is great, to often we hear about cemetery vandalism and in this article, it is such the opposite. Enjoy! Debie Blindauer Headstones from the heart Student creations mark cemetery's infant graves PEORIA, Ill. (AP) -- Joe Petrone put his heart and soul into making sure that at least three unmarked infant graves at Springdale Cemetery will have headstones. ``At first I felt like this really doesn't mean a lot to me, but over time it started to mean a great deal to me,'' said Petrone, 16, of Peoria Heights, who along with 44 other students at The Academy at Illinois Central College in East Peoria finished a yearlong project of creating headstones for unmarked infant graves at the cemetery. Petrone, a sophomore, recounted how the Springdale project allowed him to create a special headstone for his grandmother's son, who died days after his birth on Jan. 30, 1959. ``They buried my uncle in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery (in West Peoria) in 1959. They could not afford a headstone at the time,'' he said. ``I told my mother what we were doing at school and how they were going to allow me to make my uncle's headstone. My mom busted out crying. As she cried, my mom told me that I had fulfilled one of her biggest dreams.'' Petrone, his mother and other family members will place the headstone at St. Mary's in the fall. Junior Brendan Polston, 17, of Sunnyland was able to make headstones for his brothers -- Justin Curtis Polston and Allen Richard Kuehn -- as well as three headstones for children buried at Springdale. ``Although I don't know the children in Springdale at all or my brothers that well, it makes me feel good about doing this for them,'' said Polston as he stood next to the freshly made headstone for Kuehn. In all, the students created 110 concrete headstones, some including names and dates provided in records by the Springdale Cemetery Association. The Academy the students attend is an alternative high school that serves at-risk students. Art teacher Judy Placko and social issues teacher Sue Barnes-Hall worked with the students on the schoolwide project, funded by the Tazewell County Regional Office of Education. The headstones are designed with mosaic tiles, colored glass pieces and acrylic paint. Students are expected to help place them in the ``baby land'' section of the 227-acre cemetery this fall. ``Springdale Cemetery is a magnificent classroom where our students can learn about local history, how to do mapping, geography and make headstones,'' said Barnes-Hall, who also serves as a volunteer at the cemetery. The students also helped verify burial records and locate unmarked infant graves as part of the project, Barnes-Hall said. ``We were skeptical about the project and how our students would react to it,'' she said. ``At the beginning, some students thought the project was morbid until they became more involved with it. After that, the whole project took on a life of its own.''