The other goal for Eden Cemetery is to create a tourism program that would highlight the history of the cemetery and the interred. To start this program Eden Cemetery has reached out to organizations that can help them promote their facility locally, statewide and nationally.

Since Eden Cemetery has many interred members that were abolitionists, Underground Railroad Station-Masters and Underground Railroad Conductors, I assisted in the application process for them to become part of the National Underground Railroad: Network to Freedom Program.

What is the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program?
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998 (P. L. 105-203) directs the National Park Service (NPS) to establish a program that tells the story of resistance against the institution of slavery in the United States (and related territories) through escape and flight.

Through the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, the NPS acknowledges the significance of the Underground Railroad not only in its contribution to the eradication of slavery in the United States, but also as the cornerstone for a more comprehensive national civil rights movement that followed.

The program coordinates preservation and education efforts nationwide, and is working to integrate local historical sites, museums, and interpretive programs that have a verifiable association with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, national, and international stories.

The Network to Freedom Program is celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year and will have their annual conference in Philadelphia in September 2008. More importantly the U.S. Government has recently found some funds for the Network to Freedom Program to offer grants for this year. These grants are for the preservation and restoration of historic sites, as well as support for related research and documentation for sites, programs and facilities. The last time they were able to do this was in 2006.

Eden Cemetery submitted their application for acceptance into the Network to Freedom Program in January 2008. With the application review process in April, the grant deadline in early May, will we be allowed into this year funding cycle?

I consulted with Sheri Jackson, the Northeast Region Director, of the National Underground Railroad Network Program to see where we stand in this process. Sheri stated that all applicants will be notify in April on who will be accepted in this year cycle of the Network to Freedom Program. This leaves organizations one month to put together their grant application. So she said just start thinking about what project that we would like to do.

Based on the interments of William Still, ('Father of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia') and the other abolitionists at Eden Cemetery; I feel confident that we will be accepted into the Network to Freedom Program. So thinking positively, and with May around the corner, we have to start thinking about what project we want funded, because History Matters!