A handful of New Jersey State Police’s newest recruits took time on Monday to clean up a memorial to a fallen state trooper.

The group was along Interstate 78 in Summit to clean up a memorial to Trooper Thomas Hanratty, who was struck and killed by a vehicle while conducting a traffic stop on April 2, 1992. He was just 24 years old.

The group came out to trim the bushes and clean up the landscaping where the memorial stands.

State police officials say that it is a great lesson for the new recruits to never forget about one of their own.