Eagle Scout project makes navigating Wien parish cemetery easier

A new kiosk guides visitors to St. Mary Cemetery.

It was built as an Eagle Scout project by Cody Prichard, grandson of the late Harold and Jean Wehner.

Cody loved spending time with his grandpa Harold at his farm North of Wien and he would share scouting stories with his grandfather. When Mr. Wehner died, Cody wore his Boy Scout uniform to the visitation.

While helping him brainstorm ideas for his Eagle Scout project, Cody’s mother Julie (Wehner) Prichard wanted Cody to research the Hayes Cemetery, which is located between Wien and Marceline on Almond Avenue.

The land for the Hayes Cemetery was given by Mrs. Prichard’s great-great-grandparents and has many unmarked graves.

Cody didn’t have a personal connection with those relatives since he never met them. But he did have a special connection with his grandpa Harold and always enjoyed decorating his grandparents’ grave along with the burial place of Father Phil Moriarity, who died in 2009.

Cody’s Grandmother Wehner used to have Fr. Moriarity over for Sunday dinner, so Cody was able to develop a friendship with him.

Mrs. Prichard told the story about her brother who died a few hours after birth and how her mother was upset that she was not able to be there for the burial and he didn’t have a grave marker.

That convinced Cody to build a kiosk to make it easier to find the graves of loved ones in St. Mary Cemetery.

The first part of the project was to walk through the cemetery and map all the headstones along with the information on them. That turned out to be a large undertaking: there are over 725 marked graves in the cemetery.

There is a book on the side of the kiosk with an alphabetized list of names. Beside the names are color-coded markings corresponding with the map.

Each of the four sections is labeled NW, SW, NE and SE, and each section are given a color. The location of the graves are on a grid with the alphabet starting at the cross in the center.

The farther out in the alphabet, the farther away from the center cross.

The entire project took Cody 407 hours, including travel time.

He also had to keep a detailed list of expenses, which totaled $958.

Cody had two Scout leaders help him build the kiosk at his home. One is a retired engineer and the other owns a customizing business. Both are very experienced people and admired by Cody.

Kenny and Conie Clark hosted the group at his home the weekend the Kiosk was installed.

Jim Varcho, the retired engineer Scout leader, came to help install it. He was good at overseeing that everything was centered and square.

Thade Gottschalk, a fellow Scout; and Cody’s parents, Tim and Julie, all made the trip down for the installation.

Cody’s Aunt Carol and Uncle John came Friday night to help get started and helped throughout the weekend. Kenny Clark provided a tractor and drilled the post holes.

On Saturday Doug Watt a family friend along with Bill Brown, and Cody’s cousin Logan Wehner came to help.

The roof was attached with hurricane plates to make sure it was secure.

Then Mr. Clark brought over a skid loader to remove the grass and level the dirt around the Kiosk.

Three inches of sand was added to help with the leveling. Then the guys took turns mixing cement and pouring it into the forms and packing it down. The forms gave it a cobblestone look.

They had to return to the cemetery later to pour Portland cement to fill and seal the stones.

Mr. Brown helped build the shelf where the book is attached and placed the map and lettering in the kiosk.

The back side will contain a map of the Schumacher/Dunning addition and has “sold” signs to indicate which lots are sold.

Cody and his family hope this will be a very useful tool for families to search for, honor and pray for their loved ones in the hope of the Resurrection.