PORTLAND – The Friends of the Grand Trunk Cemetery will host a dedication ceremony Saturday for new memorial stones that mark six veterans interred in the cemetery in East Deering.

The event is the end of a two-year project by Girl Scouts Samantha Allshouse and Kayla Theriault to clean up and rehabilitate the cemetery, which had fallen into disrepair and was damaged by vandalism. They earned a Gold Award, the Girl Scout’s highest honor, for their project, titled “Unearthing the Roots of East Deering and the Back Cove Communities.”

The dedication ceremony begins at 1 p.m. Saturday at Grand Trunk Cemetery, 69 Presumpscot St., along the railroad tracks behind Presumpscot School.

Veterans recognized at the ceremony will include Crispus Graves, who served in the 31st Regiment under Col. Edmund Phinney during the Revolutionary War, and War of 1812 veterans Andrew Graves, John Sawyer, Joseph Sawyer, William Sawyer and Samuel Blake. All were buried in unmarked graves at the cemetery between 1818 and 1860.

Allshouse and Theriault cleaned up the cemetery with the assistance of the city’s Department of Public Works and community volunteers. They installed a new kiosk with information about the cemetery and a map of more than 100 known burials. Local historian Herb Adams assisted the Girl Scouts with their research.

Grand Trunk Cemetery started as a family plot. It is believed the cemetery got its current name after the Grand Trunk Railroad began using the land to bury people who died on the trains, according to Nicole Clegg, spokesperson for the city.