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Under the guidance of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Boys Staters cleaned dozens of Civil War veterans’ headstones during their week at Hillsdale College.

Behind only West Point among Northern universities, Hillsdale College had the highest percentage of its student body killed while fighting in the Civil War.

That means the Michigan city’s Oak Grove Cemetery includes plenty of Civil War-era graves, many in need of cleaning and restoration.

Enter Michigan Boys State.

Working under the guidance of the local Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution, Michigan Boys State’s 150 delegates spent part of an evening during their “week that shapes a lifetime” cleaning headstones in the cemetery as a community service project that tied in with this summer’s celebration of America’s 250^th birthday.

“It is definitely an honor to walk among such brave men and women that served our country,” said Christian Boyd, a Boys Stater and Squadron 528 member from Alto.

In small groups, the Boys Staters used water and brushes to clean away moss and other debris from the stones, taking before and after pictures to share with the DAR.

“I think we’re feeling … a lot of humility, a lot of respect, honor” doing this, said Michigan Boys State Governor Matthew Ostola. “Feel really grateful for the opportunity to come out here, the opportunity to pay our respects to these veterans and help their memories live on.”

Michigan Boys State Director Mark Brejcha said the DAR reached out to the program about the endeavor.

“(They) said, ‘We have a gravestone preservation program that we’d like to share with the boys, and we also would like to show them the proper way, if they were to be in a cemetery, the protocol for that, how to clean headstones if they’re asked to do that,’” Brejcha said.

Nikhil Mukkamala, the program’s director of education, said the community service project gave the Boys Staters the chance to do something with impact outside the week’s government simulation.

“We try to bring boys here who are leaders in their communities, and we want to make sure that when we get 150 leaders together, they can actually do something to benefit the area around them. … Not just to sit in the classroom and be simulating civic engagement, but to actually be engaged in something real,” Mukkamala said.

The short walk to the cemetery on Thursday was the first time off campus for most of the Boys Staters since arriving at Hillsdale College on Sunday. Program staff hoped the impact of the project would stick with the soon-to-be high school seniors.

“We're hoping that the next time they leave, which will be graduation, they carry that with them,” said junior counselor Xavier Evoy. “So it's more of the service component than anything else. And so we're sort of flipping public service on its side and saying service to the public instead of just service of the public.”