Hanover, Md. – April 15, 2009 – Cathedral Stone® Products will play a key role on the morning of April 18, when The Woodlands Trust for Historic Preservation will celebrate their first Veterans’ Volunteer Day by cleaning veterans’ monuments in Woodlands Cemetery located in West Philadelphia. This will be a collaborative effort with veteran and community volunteers, a conservation team from Fairmount Park Historic Preservation Trust (FPHPT), Allied Building Products, the City of Philadelphia, and Cathedral Stone Products of Hanover, Maryland.

Deno Montgomery, a Marine who works for Allied Building Products has organized veterans to carry out the task, but community volunteers are also welcome. The goal is to demonstrate the potential for both the community and veterans to get involved, both at Woodlands Cemetery and other cemeteries throughout the region. The results of the project will benefit both the veterans through recognition and respect, and the community through improved ascetics and involvement.

The morning will begin with a welcoming ceremony including taps and a flag folding at the neoclassical William Hamilton mansion within the Cemetery. A demonstration of the cleaning process using Cathedral Stone’s breakthrough product, D/2 Biological Solution, an ecologically friendly cleaning agent which will be used to clean the monuments, will be carried out on a nearby monument.

Volunteers will then begin monument cleaning with the materials provided. This project was initiated through FPHPT and Montgomery. Montgomery is familiar with the eco-friendly D/2 Biological Solution, and has supplied the solution to FPHPT for their conservation work.

FPHPT is a private nonprofit entity that oversees leasing and restoration of many of the Fairmount Park System’s numerous historic sites. In 2001 they completed the conservation work for the reopening of Christ Church Burial Ground at 5th and Arch Street under Jean Wolf, who is now serves as Executive Director of The Woodlands.

Cathedral Stone’s, Ted Kinnari, inventor of D/2 Biological Solution, and Cathedral Stone sales representative, Larry Burkhardt, will attend to help demonstrate the cleaning process. Results appear soon after application. After about a month of time and washing by rain, the biological growth and soiling on the stone will diminish, leaving the monument looking nearly new again.

D/2 Biological Solution removes organic growth from most surfaces. It lasts a minimum of 5 times longer than bleach, peroxides and powerwashing. D/2 is safe to use near grass and most landscape plantings. D/2 Biological Solution is a safe, easy to use liquid that removes a broad spectrum of biological deposits from hard environmental surfaces. A contact time of only 1 to 2 minutes will loosen most fungal and algal deposits with manual scrubbing and is typically sufficient for excellent results. Growth of bacteria, fungi, algae, lichens and mosses contributes significantly to the degradation of many types of construction materials, and can be disfiguring. D/2 can be utilized to control this problem on outdoor sculptures, monuments, decorative fountains, gravestones, and tombs.

The Woodlands Cemetery has been active since its founding in 1840 as a park-like garden cemetery and was originally outside the city limits. Today over 30,000 interments are recorded within its 54 acres, with hundreds of veterans among them, including a number of Revolutionary war soldiers. In the last four weeks two high school students have surveyed each monument in the cemetery to obtain locations and details on the veterans and their markers for the event.

About Cathedral Stone Products
Cathedral Stone Products is the leading North American manufacturer and distributor of environmentally safe masonry restoration and preservation products. Its materials are proven to stand the tests of time and the elements, while also protecting a structure’s original masonry. Cathedral Stone’s products encompass mortars, grouts, paints, paint strippers, water repellent, biological solution, and cleaners.