If you need a reminder that some of those living among us are worth a pat on the back and a kind word of appreciation, you need look no further than the dead.

More specifically, you should look to the areas across Rhode Island where those who have lived and passed on long before we existed are now lying at rest.

With nearly 3,000 historic cemeteries currently identified across the state – from small, family lots peppered throughout private properties to the  larger, hallowed grounds with hundreds of gravesites in various states of disrepair, and everything in between – you are never too far away from the final resting place of someone who lived and breathed in a very different Rhode Island from the one you now inhabit.

And although one of humankind’s most interesting and unique traits among all the animals in our wonderfully varied biosphere is that we tend to take great care to honor and keep sacred our dead, there is no centralized governmental apparatus in the state to oversee and care for these cemeteries. Publicly owned cemeteries are maintained by municipalities, but the vast majority endure through time and seasons and decay with no mandated caretakers.

Thank goodness, then, for the volunteers who make up the state’s Rhode Island Advisory Commission on Historical Cemeteries, and for those who serve on individual, municipal-level cemetery commissions.

These passionate and caring community members make it their mission to advocate for the historical cemeteries we otherwise might pass by without a second glance. They see to the cutting of overgrowing grass, tidy up walking paths through the plots and (when they can get the funding), pay for professionals to restore and repair gravestones that have been damaged, vandalized or just worn down by the endless barrage of nature and time.

Cranston, Johnston and Warwick are all lucky to have dedicated and active historical cemetery commissions, each of which attracts volunteers who strive to protect these important relics of our past, and restore dignity to the names of those whose remains were interred within the grounds or perhaps weren’t lucky enough even to get a proper headstone or burial.

If you have any interest in history, we implore you to engage with your local historical cemetery commission and take a tour of a local historical cemetery, or see how you can volunteer to help. In Warwick, throughout the next month, you even have an opportunity like nowhere else in the state to go on a cemetery scavenger hunt.

We all know there is no escaping the grave, so it seems a wise investment to support groups who might one day in the far future deploy volunteers to restore your own to its former glory.