I am not trying to be sour grapes here, but when you read this press release disguised as an article embedded below makes you feel like a couple of recent people did everything with regard to the ruin of Ebenezer with no help from anyone else ever. The truth is, there have been a lot of people involved, who should be remembered and thanked.

It’s like a very large village has loved this site and helped and tried to help over the years.

Those of you who know me know that I have worked on this personally for years. I have made publicly available all the information I found and shared loads of photos.

I do not do things like this for atta girls or accolades, but people could say thank you once in a while.

And folks could also say thank you to the families of the late Al Terrell and late Ann Christie as well. And former scout Luke Phayre and his mother, historian Catherine Quillman, Tim Caban former chair of East Whiteland Historic Commission, Theresa Schatz and Susan Evans -former member of East Whiteland Historic Commission, and even Dr. Bill Watson from Immaculata who is always so patient and helpful when you have any questions. There are also all the people who once lived in the area who contributed to the oral histories I posted up and gave me photos to use. Like the artist Claude Bernardin.

Or how about Chester County resident and retired Air Force Colonel Howard Crawford West Chester Veterans Council and commander of the American Legion Post 134 who was instrumental in our Veterans Day ceremony in 2016 on the site? Or Doug Buettner and others over the years who helped clean up the site? Or how about those wonderful East Whiteland police officers who showed up in 2016 to help direct traffic during the Veterans Day ceremony and became part of the honor guard?

Ebenezer is very special to me, even if I am a middle-aged white woman with no relatives in the cemetery.

I am so happy that historical marker is going up here and that there is now a small chance and hope for preservation in the future that lasts. I know that the ruin is too far gone to do anything but stabilize because a few years ago I was the one along with my husband, who had a structural engineer who dealt with historic properties look at it and give a report.

I will attend this ceremony, and I will have a happy heart and a smile on my face, as I am grateful that this is getting some more recognition. But I just want people out there to recognize that there are a lot of people who have cared about this site over the years and helped to the best of their ability.

To get to this point, it’s not just because of recent events, there are years of things behind this and lots of people who cared. Other friends like Christine, Tia, Dana and Keica.

And when I first moved here, East Whiteland Township didn’t truly give a crap about the site. East Whiteland beyond some of the member of the historic commission started to give a damn when Scott Lambert became supervisor. As a matter of fact, when we did the Veterans Day ceremony in 2016, not one supervisor showed up. I remember at the time those of us who worked on that couldn’t believe that. We kept wondering what would it have taken for any of the three supervisors or manager to have shown up even for a few minutes?

I realize I’m like the inconvenient guest at a dinner party because you never know what’s going to come out of my mouth, but I think it’s important to recognize here that a lot of people, not just me, have contributed to saving and trying to save Ebenezer.

If you go to visit this site, I hope you feel all the happy souls like we do when we’re on the site. If you go tomorrow, that is when the marker is being unveiled at 1:30 PM on Bacton Hill Road in East Whiteland.

Mt. Zion AME Church, East Whiteland Township to unveil new historic marker on Sept. 9