A volunteer support group for Greenleaf Cemetery will honor Veterans buried there again this Veteran’s Day by placing a brand new U.S. flag at their gravesite. (Pictured above are flags placed in 2010)
FROG (Friends and Relatives of Greenleaf) started a fund raising project in June of this year to raise money to buy new 12×18 cloth flags to replace the 1200+ plastic ones that were destroyed by high winds during the Memorial Day tribute. The fund raising campaign reached near and far and was 100% successful.
It is FROG’S goal to honor each and every Veteran at Greenleaf by placing a single flag at every Veteran gravesite. This year, in honor of Veteran’s Day, Friday, November 11th, the flags will be placed on Thursday and collected on Saturday. The volunteer group respectfully asks that visitors NOT TAKE the flags. By recycling the flags, FROG is confident they’ll be able to use and reuse the flags for years to come.
The 95-acre cemetery will definitely be a memorable sight to see with the beautiful new red white and blue flags adorning 1200+ grave sites. Most Veteran gravesites are easily recognizable because of the headstone, but those families whose markers do not show military service may want to notify a FROG volunteer and specifically request a flag.
“It is a great privilege to place a flag and pay honorable tribute toA veteran who has lived and served, and has been buried at our beautiful historic cemetery. We always recite the veteran’s name and military branch before we place the flag and say ‘thank you,’ stated Vonne Cornett, a FROG member. “Most of these brave souls are unknown to us, but sometimes we come upon a very close and familiar marker. It usually gets a little extra pause. But even when we place a flag upon our fathers, our grandfather’s or our good friend’s stone, we realize it doesn’t matter if we knew the others or not, we still want to honor them and say ‘Thank You’. It’s very humbling.”
For more information contact FROG volunteers Lynn Gentry at lngentry@suddenlink.net — Connie Wyatt at conwyatt@yahoo.com or Vonne Cornett at vonnecornett@hotmail.com or call 325-642-1119 to make a special flag request.
