Next Chapter seeks volunteers to honor veterans at Roselawn Cemetery

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Next Chapter isn't just a local nonprofit that aims to prevent veteran suicide in El Paso and Pueblo counties. It also participates in numerous community projects. 

This year, the staff is spearheading a big one that will provide benefits for many years to come. 

Jose Ramirez is a 25-year veteran of both the Army and Marines, much of that time spent as a member of the special forces, and he knows what it’s like to lose a fellow servicemember. 

While placing wreaths at Roselawn Cemetery in Pueblo back in December, he learned that the cemetery didn't know how many veterans were buried there. 

As a staff member at Next Chapter, Ramirez decided that needed to change. 

“It's important for us to understand and know who our veterans are who are laid to rest here,” he says. 

Around that same time in December, UCHealth was taking over Parkview Hospital. 

As a partner in the Next Chapter program, the organization saw this effort as a way to engage and support the Pueblo community. 

“Having help from these organizations is absolutely fantastic,” says Ray Brown, the Director of Grounds and Facilities at Roselawn. 

Brown is also a veteran himself. 

He explained that 66,000 people are buried at Roselawn, some dating back to the 1870s. 

While the cemetery does have a record of everyone buried there, documenting the military status of everyone across the 125-acre property is something he couldn't do on his own. 

“I just don't have the time to go through each one of the graves and identify veterans,” Brown explained. 

So he and Ramirez are now recruiting a few dozen volunteers to come out in May, use a special app to map out all veteran gravesites, and even add a photo of each one. 

As new veterans are buried there, they can be added to the database. 

"That mapping software allows you to drop a pin, as far as where locations are, so it will give you a grid or a latitude-longitude location. You can take a picture, and drop that picture onto that pin so you have a marker,” says Ramirez. 

The head of the Next Chapter program hopes this opportunity to serve might even be a form of therapy for many veterans who are struggling with their separation from the military. 

Damian McCabe, UCHealth Director of Behavioral Health and Military Affairs, says "Providing an opportunity like this to the veteran community in Pueblo to come and help us, is an opportunity for them to return to that service, and to continue to live that oath of service that we took when we joined the military." 

While Roselawn may be the first to receive this massive mapping project, the hope is to move on to other cemeteries to ensure that all veterans are identified and remembered. 

The dates that volunteers are needed are May 4 and May, both Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Organizers hope to have 40-50 people on each day.

Anyone interested in helping out can contact Jose Ramirez at Jose.Ramirez@uchealth.org

Also, if you are related to a veteran who's buried at Roselawn, but their gravesite doesn't indicate they served, you are asked to reach out to the cemetery and let them know, so they can be recognized as well.