Volunteers Work To Preserve Medal Of Honor Grove In Valley Forge

PHILADELPHIA (KYW 1060) –  A couple months after word surfaced that the Medal of Honor Grove at the Valley Forge-based Freedoms Foundation was in serious disrepair, volunteers from far and wide have combined to clean up and repair the 52 acre site.

KYW's David Madden reports the grove, established half a century ago to honor medal recipients, needed more than a little work to get rid of uncontrolled weeds, damaged benches and more.

The foundation couldn't keep up with it all and recent financial trouble certainly didn't help. Foundation spokesman Jeff Oddo says things have certainly turned around:

"We made a list of the things we wanted to accomplish over the last couple months, and we're about 95 percent there. Right now our big focus is removal of tree stumps."

And they're putting plans together for long-term volunteer maintenance of the shrines to every state.

There's another volunteer cleanup day set there for the first weekend of October. As for the future of the grove itself, there's been talk of creating a new, smaller site to better tell the stories of those who died in defense of freedom.

An independent study is due early next year.

(Credit: Freedoms Foundation)