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LEWISTON – The city is seeking volunteers to place almost 7,500 flags at the individual veterans’ gravestones in city cemeteries. Groups and individuals are welcome to join this community service project.
The state passed a law in 2001 that requires municipalities to buy and place individual American flags at the gravestone of every veteran buried in each cemetery in their municipality. The flags must be in place for Memorial Day. Lewiston has 13 cemeteries and places almost 7,500 flags. All work is done by community volunteers.
Neighbors of the smaller cemeteries usually place the flags each year, but volunteers are needed for the two largest cemeteries – Riverside and St. Peters. While service organizations have adopted the project, they welcome volunteers to help out. Children and teens are encouraged to participate, but must be accompanied by an adult.
Volunteers are needed at:
St. Peter’s Cemetery, Switzerland Road, at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21 (rain or shine). Participants should meet at the mausoleum. Jerry Dewitt, 207-576-0376, is the contact for the day and the L/A Veterans Council is coordinator for this cemetery, where approximately 4,000 flags must be placed.
Riverside Cemetery, 192 Summer St., 9 a.m. Saturday, May 21 (rain date Saturday, May 28). The Knights of Columbus are the coordinators for this location and contact is Leo Baillargeon at 207-577-7424. There are approximately 1,600 flags at this location.
The plan is to assign teams of five-10 volunteers to an area of the cemetery and to cover the cemetery in a grid fashion in order to not miss any stone. There is no master list of veterans buried at the cemetery, so volunteers will need to walk each row of stones and read the inscription on each gravesite. If military service is listed on the stone, a flag will be placed there. This is a fairly time consuming process so many volunteers are appreciated.
Face masks are optional based upon the comfort level of the individual volunteer.
Work gloves are optional but encouraged, volunteers should bring their own hand sanitizer
Social distancing will be encouraged to accommodate the comfort level of volunteers
Wear sneakers or boots in case the grass is wet
Bring a screwdriver to use to poke a hole in the grass. It makes it much easier to place the wooden dowel of the flag into the ground if you make the hole first.
Bring a water bottle, bug spray, hat and sunscreen. Be mindful of ticks.
Wearing company or organization T-shirts is welcome.
