Volunteers join man's mission to clean all 300 veterans' graves in Alberta cemetery

In 2016, Eric Dahlmade it his mission to painstakinglyclean and repair the approximately 300 veterans graves at the Drumheller, Alta., cemetery.

Over the past 18 months, he managed to fix up about 250 of those and on Saturday, dozens of volunteers joined him from across the province to help him finally finish his quest.

• Eric Dahl's mission to clean every soldier's gravestone in Drumheller inspires other Albertans

"Every one of them will be taken care of, from whatever nation that they served under. They are all brothers and sisters. For me they are family and they will be treated as such," Dahl said.

Dahl's grandfather was a member of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War. He survived being in a submarine that was torpedoed, and was at one pointimprisoned at the Stalag 5 military camp in Germany. He's buried in England.

Dahl took on the project to honour him and others who served.

Heather Jones attended the clean-up event with her two teenage sons and some coworkers.

"I think thatit's pretty special what Eric did, and to do that all himself I thought was pretty powerful. Definitely moved me,"she said."When I heard about it, I just wanted to be involved. I wanted to help,"

The volunteers scrubbed the graves, swept away debrisand placed flags for each veteran's nationality.

Lise Duplinis half French and half Ojibway. She placedFrench flags on the five French veterans graves.

"I do have a French background, and it's meaningful. It means something to me. I feel honoured and blessed just to be here today honouring the French veterans who served," she said.

Their hard work did not go unnoticed.

Jeremy Scott, from the Frezenberg Unit of the 3rd Canadian Army Veteran Motorcycle Unit, said he was glad to see veterans being appreciated.

"A lot of younger folk, they don't know, they don't understand. So to see people out here, especially at that age of 13 and what not, it's good to see them out and helping. It shows they care," Scott said.

Dahl said he hopes his mission will inspire others to do the same and plans to make the cleanup an annual event.

"Pick it up in your own town. What I've done here, anybody can do this. I don't have means, there's no big sponsorship. There's no money behind this. There's no excuse for not starting this in your own hometown."

Drumheller is about 130 kilometres northeast of Calgary.

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