Volunteers To Place Thousands Of Flags In Honor Of Veterans

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA – Volunteers carrying bundles of miniature American flags will fan out today at Riverside National Cemetery to place the Stars and Stripes alongside the graves of thousands of servicemen and women laid to rest at the site as part of a Memorial Day weekend tribute.

Cypress-based Honoring Our Fallen will hold its annual "Flag for Every Hero" ceremony through noon, during which families, Boy Scouts, police Explorer troops and anyone else who wants to participate will walk the hallowed grounds, placing flags adjacent to plots.

Last year, several hundred people showed up to help, and coordinator Brennan Leininger was hoping that a like number would turn out this year.

When the flag walks began on Memorial Day weekend 2012, volunteers were able to reach only 21,000 of the more than 200,000 grave sites. In 2014, organizers were able to procure enough flags and enlist a sufficient number of people to plant the Stars and Stripes next to just about all of the final resting places of individuals interred at the cemetery.

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors provided funding in 2013 to help purchase flags, which cost around 60 cents apiece.

Leininger, an Anaheim police officer and former U.S. Air Force serviceman, began co-organizing flag walks after he visited the cemetery and was dismayed by how few flags were flying. Longtime Riverside resident Mary Ellen Gruendyke has contributed money and time to the effort for more than a decade.

The 900-acre national cemetery is the fourth-largest of its kind in the nation -- and running out of space.

More information about the walks and where to make donations is available here: www.honoringourfallen.org .

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--City News Service/Morguefile image