Editor’s Note: We are recognizing some of the exceptional individuals who have demonstrated the best of Staten Island this year and naming them as Staten Island’s Brightest Lights of 2024 in recognition of the many Staten Islanders who have done so.
They deserve congratulations, as do all the residents of the borough who have discovered ways to support, advocate for, inspire, alter the world, and/or care about their neighborhood in 2024.
2024’s Top Attractions in Staten Island: Willie Schafer
His narrative in brief:
Willie Schafer was born in 1929 and has lived on Staten Island all of his life. His current residence is located right inside the Greenbelt.
A former bus driver, war veteran, and former backhoe business owner, he worked evenings at the Fresh Kills Landfill as a tractor operating engineer.
He now spends his Sundays tending to the graves of thirty friends at three separate cemeteries, setting an example for others to follow at the age of 94.
Schafer visits seven friends’ graves at St. Peters Cemetery first, then 17 more in Moravian Cemetery, and finally, his lover and five pals are buried at Ocean View Cemetery.
He stated, “I try to keep all the graves nice.”
In addition to weeding, gardening, and grass clipping, he decorates each cemetery with flags on July 4th and wreaths at Christmas. He mentions that he no longer needs to use a cable to trim the overgrown grass on the gravesites while driving about in his suburban car, which is equipped with an electric weed eater.
Read Priya Shahi’s complete account of Willie Schafer here.
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