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LEWISTON — The city is looking for volunteers to place American flags at the gravestone of every veteran buried in each cemetery in the city.
The flags must be in place for Memorial Day each year.
Lewiston has 13 cemeteries and places almost 7,000 flags. All work is done by community volunteers. For many of the smaller cemeteries, the abutting neighbors usually place the flags each year. For the larger cemeteries – Mt. Hope, Riverside and St. Peter’s – there are service organizations which have adopted these cemeteries over the years and take care of placing many of the flags.
Volunteers are being sought for the following:
* Mt. Hope Cemetery, 81 Mt. Hope Ave., Saturday, May 19, 1 p.m. Marcus Talarico and the Liberty Festival board of directors coordinate this location with approximately 1,200 flags for this location.
* St. Peter’s Cemetery, Switzerland Road, Sunday, May 20, (rain or shine), 10 a.m. Meet at the mausoleum. Jerry Dewitt is the contact person for that day and the L/A Veterans Council coordinates this location with approximately 3,700 flags.
* Riverside Cemetery, 192 Summer St., Saturday, May 26, 9 a.m. Ivan Boudreau is the contact person, and the Knights of Columbus this location with approximately 1,600 flags.
The plan is to assign teams of five to 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 time-consuming process, so many volunteers are needed.
Some things to keep in mind if you participate:
Wear sneakers or boots in case the grass is wet and bring a screwdriver to use to poke a hole in the grass. It is much easier to place the wooden dowel of the flag into the ground if you make the hole first. Work gloves might be helpful. Plan to bring a water bottle if it is a hot day. Bring bug spray, hat and sunscreen. Children are welcome with plenty of adult supervision (do not drop off minors to do this work unsupervised). Wearing company or organization t-shirts is welcome and encouraged.
