Trevor Frey/Daily News Alec Gouvas, 14, brushes off a headstone at Fairview Cemetery on Saturday as part of his Eagle Scout project.

The ceramic angel atop Elmer Williams’ white marble tombstone in Fairview Cemetery got a bath Saturday, along with the tombstone itself, thanks to a pressure washer and the efforts of a soon-to-be Eagle Scout from Troop 79 in Bowling Green.

The Kentucky veteran’s headstone, which listed him as serving in the U.S. Naval Reserves in World War II, was one of 760 headstones scrubbed and sprayed by a team of parents, troop members and volunteers from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Heading up the operation was Alec Gouvas, 14, a freshman at Bowling Green High School and a nine-year member of Troop 79.

Alec worked his way through the Boy Scout ranks, from Cub Scout to Tenderfoot to Life member, and is now ready to become an Eagle Scout, he said. Cleaning the headstones in Fairview Cemetery is his final project – after the last stone is sparkling clean, he’ll fill out some paperwork and send it to Boy Scout Council, and then, if he’s lucky, he’ll be asked to come before the council to answer some questions.

“I hope I can get it the first time,” he said.

Alec was assisted by about 30 volunteers Saturday, many of whom were fellow Troop members returning the favor. The boys often help each other out on their Eagle Scout projects, Alec said.

Art Lawrence, whose son Spencer was one of the teens scrubbing tombstones, was happy to help out.

“As a veteran, it’s an honor to be able to do something for all the deceased veterans … it’s a privilege,” he said. “I didn’t realize (the stones) were even marble – they’re nice memorials.”

By midmorning, the freshly washed stones stood in sharp contrast to the rows still waiting to be cleaned. Years of dirt, moss and mold had all but obscured the names engraved there, but one by one they became apparent: Ellen L. Willyard, Ben Reeves, Marion Jewell Ragland, James Owen Spears.

The Parks and Recreation Department has been wanting to clean the headstones for a while, but a project like that would take a lot of workers a lot of time to complete, said Ernie Gouvas, director of Parks and Recreation and Alec’s proud father.

Alec picked a good project, said Troop 79 Scoutmaster Mike Dowell, as have many of the Eagle Scouts in his troop. Others have built shelters at the Humane Society, cleaned family cemeteries and helped out at Lost River Cave, he said.

The 24 members of his troop seem to try their best to uphold the Boy Scout Oath, he said, and nowhere was that more obvious than in the cemetery Saturday morning.

“I’ve got a great bunch of guys,” he said. “They’re good boys.”

A fitting reminder, the veterans’ memorial sculpture loomed nearby, an American flag fluttering high atop it, while Alec rinsed and scrubbed headstones, his clothes and skin flecked with dirt.

“I drive by here a lot – I see all these stones and they’re all dirty, and now they’re all white,” he said. “… It’s just showing that people still care about what the veterans did.”