Sally-Ann Roberts / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is known for its cemeteries. But there is one you may not know about.
It's drawing visitors from around the country - not to marvel at its mausoleums but to make a difference.
"I saw a gentleman sitting on this cinderblock over here," said Bobbiann Lews, Holt Cemetery volunteer.
Lewis has witnessed the despair time after time.
"His heart was just broken so I asked him what was happening, who was buried there and he just could just barely get out that it was his mother and she had died a few weeks ago and he just felt so bad that he couldn't do better for her," Lewis said.
But there are volunteers here to help from Cathedral High School in Indianpolis. They are building retaining walls to preserve gravesites.
For the past five years, Lewis has drawn volunteers from around the country to the Holt Cemetery that was established in 1897 on City Park Avenue for the poor.
She is a licensed embalmer and funeral service instructor at Delgado Community College located next to Holt Cemetery and that's what led her to volunteer here.
"Its just a passion. How can we teach students that are going out to be funeral directors and embalmers about death and the dignity of death if this cemetary is like it is," she said.
These Catholic students from Indiana are here for a second year in a row because they believe cemeteries are sacred.
"You're supposed to keep them so nice they're like a holy place and like here it's sad that people's family members are buried like this...It's sad," Indianapolis student Olivia Burris said.
When asked what she would carry away from this experience, Kaitlyn Kaminskas said, "I'm going to carry away like so much. It's overwhelming."
Lewis and the other volunteers do what they can to preserve gravesites - If it's just putting a makeshift border and cross to mark an unknown child's grave, later to find toys left by loved ones.
"Just by seeing things like this, it's letting me know we have done a good thing in the earth," Lewis said.
People who would like to volunteer at Holt Cemetery can contact Bobbiann Lewis at 884-2419.
