At 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 11, members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) cleaning the headstones in the cemetery area at Pioneer Memorial Park, 387 E. Washington St.

Volunteers from the community are welcome to help maintain the park. For information, contact the Sequim Prairie Garden Club at 360-808-3434 or www.sequimprairiegardenclub.org.

The park played an integral part in the early days of the small pioneer community of Sequim. In 1880, four acres of John Bell’s homestead were sold to Clallam County to be used as Sequim’s first cemetery. The deed to the Sequim Cemetery Association was signed in about 1909.

Frequent flooding from Bell Creek caused the association to abandon the property. Living family members were contacted for burial transfers to other cemeteries or at that time, on family farms. Some families could not be located and the individuals and headstones remained on the property.

Then in 1951, the newly formed Sequim Prairie Garden Club signed a 99-year lease with the Sequim Cemetery Association. Garden club members, with the help of numerous other service groups and volunteers, created Sequim’s first community park from the abandoned cemetery and named it Pioneer Memorial Park.

The NSDAR was founded in 1890 with the mission of promoting historic preservation, education and patriotism. Today, there are more than one million members.

DAR members are women who come from diverse backgrounds and hold a variety of interests. Their common bond is their lineal descent from Patriots of the American Revolution.