Participants will have the opportunity to listen to the history of some of Springfield’s well-known early residents and enter the mausoleums, according to Marilyn Knize, who works in family services, programs and events for the cemetery.
These evening lantern tours will be led by Kevin Rose, of the Turner Foundation, who began doing it in 2019.
About 700 to 800 people have attended this tour since the first year in 2016. In 2020 and 2021, the event wasn’t held because of COVID-19, but a virtual visit with a series of videos was made.
Knize said this event has been very successful through the years.
“In fact, the first few years there was such an overwhelming demand to attend that last year, we added a second night,” she said. “We still had almost 100 people attend on each night.”
This is a strenuous walking tour, including uneven ground and hills, and there are no accommodations for those with mobility issues. Lanterns are provided.
The cost is a suggested $10 donation. In the past, the cemetery only asked for a token donation to help defray the cost of the speaker, but not everyone paid, so they raise about $800 per year. However, Knize said this is the first year the Ferncliff Foundation has been formed, and this year they are looking for corporate partner sponsors including Silver, Gold and Platinum.
The Platinum Sponsor for this year’s event is Shout It Out Designs of Yellow Springs.
Reservations are required by calling the office at 937-322-3491. There’s no deadline to register, but the cemetery tries not to go over 100 to 110 people per night because “any larger crowd is hard for people to hear and we don’t want them to have to rush looking inside the mausoleums,” Knize said.
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