GRAVES IN HISTORIC RESTING PLACE SPRUCED UP MOTORCYCLE CLUB, SEABEES JOIN IN PIRU CEMETERY WORK.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

PIRU -- The oft-neglected Piru Cemetery, final resting place of some of the victims of the 1928 St. Francis Dam collapse, got a boost Saturday in a community cleanup that drew about 100 shovel-, hoe-, rake- and broom-wielding volunteers.

The event was organized by members of the Fillmore-based motorcycle club Mischief Makers, who have been tending to the cash-strapped cemetery for the past several months.

``When we came out, it was in pretty bad shape,'' Mischief Maker Tom Fennell said of the cemetery's grounds. ``Out of the gravesites, almost 100 veterans are buried here. They deserve an honorable place to rest.''

The private cemetery is run by a nonprofit board that stretches an annual operating budget of roughly $4,600 to the breaking point each year. Board members volunteer to perform upkeep, enlisting family members to help.

Saturday, members from the bike group and more than two dozen U.S. Navy Seabees edged grass around gravestones, uncovered overgrown grave markers and repaired fencing.

The Mischief Makers -- who take umbrage at being called ``bikers,'' instead describing themselves as ``a social club with a motorcycle problem'' -- range from their 20s to fifty-somethings and include professionals, retired firefighters and government employees.

The group numbers about 20, but another 30 may show up for rides. Fennell, 47, works for the county of Ventura in network administration.

Since it formed nine months ago, members have organized a holiday toy run and a fundraiser ride in memory of an Oxnard junior high-schooler killed in a car crash. The cemetery project is the group's biggest event yet.

The lone Harley-Davidson on the premises belonged to member Joe Flores, 23, a Jiffy Lube technician. His old-school ride was tricked out with ape-hangers -- high handlebars that drape riders' arms like a monkey hanging from a branch.

Flores' mom, Julie, 47, is one of the group's only two female members. Her nephew, Austin Alonzo, was too busy to talk.

``I'm working,'' the 5-year-old said. He visits often to sweep grave markers and to place flowers on his grandpa's and uncle's graves, Flores said.

Gama Aguilar, 45, a member whose day job is lead groundskeeper for the Fillmore Unified School District, helped repair a broken water line.

One of Fennell's co-workers recruited the Seabees, who cleaned out a water-channeling ditch above the cemetery that was jammed with dirt.

The members of the Mobile Construction Battalion, stationed in Port Hueneme, returned from a six-month deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan in October.

``If you don't clear this out, (rain) water will flood the cemetery and the names will be covered with mud,'' said Seabee Joel Punsalan.

The Seabees filled sandbags with the loose dirt, stacking them into a wall to block seepage from the hills above.

Among the busy bees were relatives visiting the graves of departed loved ones. Fran Clausen's long-stemmed roses were the single bright spot in the section where her family rests.

Clausen's mother survived the St. Francis Dam disaster, which took the lives of Clausen's grandmother and five of her other children.

The dam failed three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, and the resulting flood killed more than 600 people.

``They were in a room praying and it came and hit,'' Clausen said. Clausen's mother Alvina died in 2003, at age 91.

``Alvina saved her father -- she caught on to a log. She didn't know how to swim, but caught (her father) Joseph Gottardi by his nightshirt.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in SAC edition only) Motorcycle rider Patti Alonzo, far right, with son Austin, 5, and friend Sonya Barraza clean headstones in the Piru Cemetery in Piru on Saturday morning. The Mischief Makers members volunteered their time, along with local Seabees, to clean up the old cemetery.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Rosemary Fennell of Fillmore collects vegetation from the headstones.

(3) Motorcycle enthusiast Ron Johnson of Piru helps clean headstones at the Piru Cemetery in Piru on Saturday morning. The Mischief Makers volunteered their time to clean up the cemetery.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News