CARBONDALE, IL (WSIL) -- A local business owner held a 'different' kind of sale this past Memorial Day. Instead of discounts to draw customers in, a percentage of holiday sales went to restore historic headstones.
Castle Perilous Games & Books presented the City of Carbondale with those donations this week, which will go to towards repairs in Woodlawn Cemetery.
The historic site is considered the birthplace of Memorial Day in Illinois. General John A Logan held Illinois's first observance there in 1866. Many of the damaged headstones are more than 100 years old.
Castle Perilous owner Scott Thorne says, he was inspired to host the holiday fundraiser after visiting the City's Memorial Day services at Woodlawn, learning of the damaged headstones and the costly techniques required to repair them.
"They're very fragile, once they're damaged like that it's fairly difficult to replace them," explains Thorne. "You support the place where you live, where you work, where you play and then the people who are in that community come back and support you."
Woodlawn Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places, earning its placement there in 1985. It's also designated as a Carbondale Historic Landmark and is the final resting grounds of both Union and Confederate soldiers.
