When an EF1 tornado swept through Amelia, Ohio, in the early hours of the morning on March 1 this year, more than 50 memorials were overturned or damaged at the Pierce Township Cemetery.

After hearing word of the destruction, family members arrived at gravesites and were devastated to see their loved ones’ final resting places damaged. The cemetery filed an insurance claim but was unsure if it would cover the full extent of repair costs.

Fortunately, thanks to a generous act from Dodds Monuments, family members who have relatives interred in the cemetery did not have to let their loved ones' memorials remain disturbed for long.

“When you go to a cemetery and see gravesites disrupted, it is heartbreaking,” says Desiree Roose, marketing administrator at Dodds Monuments. “When Neil Fogarty, the president of Dodds Monuments, heard the memorials were knocked over, he wrote a letter to the cemetery, offering our services to put them back up.”

The Pierce Township Cemetery had received bids from other companies to right the memorials, but Dodds Monuments wanted to do it free of charge.

“The cemetery was so happy that we were willing to do this,” says Roose. “They had gotten a couple bids from other companies, but we’re so passionate about the lasting vision of love for families, we wanted to right the memorials at no charge.”

This is not the first time Dodds Monuments has helped repair memorials that have been damaged. In 2015 they worked with the Beavertown Cemetery in Kettering to help restore over 100 memorials that had been vandalized.

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Earlier this month, at a board of trustees meeting, Pierce Township recognized Dodds Monuments with a service award. A packed room of community members were present when the plaque was given to Dodds Monuments.

“We were so honored when we found out we received the award,” says Roose. “We weren’t expecting it.”

In addition to honoring Dodds Monuments, Pierce Township also recognized the Red Cross, Clermont County Disaster Program, and community members who provided assistance after the tornado.

Roose attended the meeting to accept the award for Dodds. “For us, offering our help to this community and to the families here was an automatic. We thought, ‘Absolutely, we will do this for you.’”