Lutz Cemetery Affixes QR Codes To Graves To Honor Dead

LUTZ, Fla. — The American Legion Post 108 has launched a year-long historian project at Lutz Cemetery, one of only two cemeteries the American Legion owns and operates. 

The project at the cemetery, which has operated since 1911, will focus on young people preserving the history of those buried there.

What You Need To Know

Lutz Cemetery is one of only two U.S. cemeteries owned and operated by the American Legion, located at
201 5th Ave in Lutz

The American Legion is launching a year-long historian project at Lutz Cemetery

 Young people will write biographies about people buried at the cemetery

QR codes, attached to headstones, will link to the new online biographies 

Those youths will ‘adopt’ someone who is buried at the cemetery. They will then research that person’s life, collecting data, records and photos. The young historians will use that information and content to create a webpage, serving as a biography.

Once completed, a stainless steel QR code will be affixed to the gravestone. Visitors to the cemetery can use that QR code to view the biography through a company called Life’s QR.

Here’s an example for Lt. Col. Louis Carrol, who is buried at Lutz Cemetery and served in the Air Force during World War II, Korea and Vietnam: QR Code – Gravestone Link

“That is how we’re hoping to lasso in some of the history that we have here,” said Toni Hedstrom, the operations manager at Lutz Cemetery and the marketing manager for American Legion Post 108. “We’re blessed to have the history we have.”

The historian project is in line with the American Legion’s focus. The organization has four pillars, one of which is “Children & Youth.”

On a recent Saturday in February, the American Legion hosted a Cub Scout Troop. The members of the troop cleaned grit and grime off the gravestones.

“My hope, selfishly, is maybe some of these kids will notice these years (birth years and death years on the headstones).” said Mike Lowell, Veterans Services Officer for the American Legion Post 108. “And think ‘I wonder what was happening 100 years ago.”