Collin Kelly

Beware, for Coyote can take on many shapes and forms...

--ryan


Cemetery Thwarts Boy's Effort to Put Flowers on Graves
By Rob Haneisen / Daily News Staff
Tuesday, May 24, 2005


FRAMINGHAM -- Collin Kelly is a 9-year-old boy who simply wanted to honor his heroes by placing flowers on the graves of long-dead soldiers at Edgell Grove Cemetery in time for Memorial Day weekend.

     Instead, his would-be act of kindness has been thwarted by the Edgell Grove Cemetery Trustees who say the rules forbid strangers from placing flowers in the soldiers' lot where 156 veterans from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War are buried.

     "I can't believe the controversy we are embroiled in," said an incredulous Lynn Kelly, Collin's mother. "It's two marigolds! It's not like we're defacing the graves - we're honoring them."
 
    A story in Saturday's Daily News featured Collin's plan to raise money so he could plant two small flowers at each grave in the soldiers' lot. Collin, a second-grader at St. Bridget's, started collecting money from neighbors and teachers to buy the flowers and said last week that he needed about $75 more to finish the job.
 
    Collin's story sparked an outpouring of goodwill with checks arriving at the Kelly home, phone calls pledging support (including one from Rivers Edge Greenhouse offering free flowers) and even a few personal visits.

     "We had people knocking on our door, wanting to meet Collin, giving him $5 or $10," said Lynn Kelly. "I had a man in my driveway crying."

     According to Kevin Devlin, the Edgell Grove Cemetery superintendent, the board of trustees turned away Collin's effort because it violates cemetery policy that forbids anyone other than family members from placing flowers on graves.

     "This was a decision that they made and I just did what I was told," said Devlin, who initially welcomed the idea last week. "I still think it was a nice gesture on his part."

     The cemetery is owned by the town of Framingham but is run by a five-member elected board of trustees. Devlin said families buy the rights to the plots and expect that no one other than family will plant flowers around the grave site.

     "If you have a cemetery, you have to have rules and regulations," Devlin said. "To plant on other people's graves is not really the thing to do."

     Barbara Ford, vice chairman of the trustees, agreed that rules are rules, "no matter how thoughtful and charitable. Evidently this wasn't handled properly," she said.

     "You don't just go into a cemetery and place flowers on graves that belong to somebody else," Ford said. "Those are private lots."

     Trustees William Welch, Nancy Bianchi, Stanton Fitts and John Silva could not be reached for comment.

     Collin liked it that so many people wanted to help him but he did not understand why the trustees would not allow him to place flowers in the soldiers' lot.

     "These graves are so old that no one comes to visit them much," he said. "If people came - and they probably won't - and they want to plant flowers and don't want (my flowers), they can just rip them up."

     Collin thought of his idea when visiting the cemetery last week to put flowers on a relative's grave and noticed that the soldiers' lot did not have any flowers. A large memorial in front of the lot is decorated with flowers and a wreath on Memorial Day and each grave is marked with an American flag.

     After the story appeared in Saturday's newspaper, Lynn Kelly said they returned home to find 17 messages on the answering machine, including one from Sarasota, Fla.

     "At church, people came up to him," said Lynn Kelly. "You should have seen him. He was glowing."

     Collin said if he can't buy flowers for the graves he will donate the money to the Framingham Veterans Council to help them run programs to honor those who served.

     Mal Schulze, Veterans Council president who praised Collin's idea last week, had harsh words for the Edgell Grove Cemetery Trustees' decision.

     "I think the whole thing is a bunch of crap," he said. "It was absolutely thoughtless" of the trustees to turn down Collin's idea.

     To show his gratitude, Schulze has offered an invitation to Collin and his mother to join the Veterans Council on Memorial Day when they participate in wreath-laying ceremonies across town. Collin will also be Schulze's guest of honor at the Memorial Day ceremony at the Memorial Building in Framingham at 11 a.m. Monday.

     Ford said she admired Collin's thoughtfulness and hoped he did not have any hard feelings over the matter. She said it would be nice if he decided to plant flowers around the memorial in front of the soldiers' lot.
     
( Rob Haneisen can be reached at rhaneis@cnc.com )