Man cleans up veterans cemetery in honor of Memorial Day weekend

One man is honoring departed veterans this Memorial Day weekend by volunteering to clean up a cemetery.
Ron Errickson Jr, 31, will spend a good chunk of his time at Pine Brook Cemetery in Tinton Falls, the resting place for generations of local African Americans who couldn't be buried in local white cemeteries, which included many veterans of The Civil War and World War I.
“There were just rooted and buried in the dirt,” Errickson Jr. told News 12. “I mean they have roots growing out of them.
At Pine Brook, there are some headstones that are missing, some of them because they couldn't afford headstones. Wooden crosses are in its place instead.
Errickson Jr. and a handful of helpers have spent the last few weekends cleaning up the place. The Jamesburg native and the volunteers have disposed up to 12 inches of brush and leaves that had turned the place into a swampy mess.
“It's always better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission,” he added. “I don't think anyone's going to put me in handcuffs for cleaning up a veteran's cemetery. This is the third cemetery he's cleaned up. Neglected cemeteries irk him, especially when veterans’ graves are present. It bugs the crap out of me.”
Volunteers who want to assist Errickson Jr. can show up to the cemetery on Saturday or Sunday at 10 a.m.