Cemetery flag planting honors veterans

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jerene Thomas remembers celebrating Decoration Day when she was a child. In the 1940s, she and her grandmother would head out to clean and decorate the graves of veterans, as well as non-veterans. Decoration Day would later come to be known as Memorial Day.

On Saturday, at age 78, Thomas — who goes by 'Jeri' — was at it once again. She joined a couple hundred volunteers in placing about 6,700 American flags on graves at Cedar Memorial Cemetery to honor veterans this Memorial Day weekend.

The group, including members of the American Legion from Marion, local Boy Scouts, individuals and families, set to work around 8 a.m. and finished the job in a couple hours.

'Every year, the volunteers grow and grow and grow,' said Thomas, who has been involved in the flag-planting event more than 40 years and is passing on the duties of coordinating the effort to Ryan Stevenson, a U.S. Navy veteran.

Stevenson described Saturday's event as 'awesome,' and said he was blown away by the number of people who came out to help.

Thomas said planting flags at Cedar Memorial Cemetery is a tradition that dates back generations. Her mother, Irene Roscoe, once coordinated the effort as a member of the American Legion Auxiliary. Back then, only 200-300 flags were planted each year. Thomas, a Marion resident and retired Linn-Marr school bus driver, said she took over in the late 1980s.

Though many took time to praise Thomas Saturday for her unwavering dedication to the flag-planting event, she was quick to shift the focus.

'It's not about regonizing me, it's about the veterans,' she said.

Jim Swain, family service counselor at Cedar Memorial, said two different set of flags are now flying in the cemetery; the smaller ones on each grave and about 1,500 larger flags that line the roadways.

The smaller flags are to be picked up beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday and returned to the Veterans Memorial Commission for storage. Volunteers are needed to help with that effort.

Swain said those who help with the flag planting effort are very patriotic individuals.

'They do this because they love this country and they feel a particular need to recognize the people who in some cases have given it all,' he said.

Bill Schlotfelt, 52, of Cedar Rapids, said he came out Saturday not just as a leader for Palo-based Boy Scout Troop 1024, but to honor his fellow veterans, including those he knew who had died.

'There's a young man who made it through Iraq and was killed in a car accident here,' said Schlotfelt, who served for 17 years in the Army National Guard and was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom from June 2003 to May 2004. 'It brings the realization to me that it doesn't matter where you are when it happens.'

Shelley Watson, of Anamosa, said she brought her family to the event to help teach her children the importance of honoring veterans.

'It means we're doing something for them,' she said. 'They gave something for us, so we're giving something back to them.'

John Powers, chairman of the Metro Veterans Council, a group that connects more than 10 veterans-based groups in Cedar Rapids, said more than 10,000 flags are placed this year at Cedar Memorial, Czech National, Mount Calvary, St. John's, St. George Orthodox and Oak Hill cemeteries. He said the organization tries to provide a flag for every veteran.

Records are updated annually by the Veterans Memorial Commission, a 7-member board of former veterans appointed by the mayor, according to Nikee Woods, administrative assistant for the commission. Woods said any new flags needed each year are purchased by the Metro Veterans Council through funds they earn selling honorary bricks.

She said it's an important tradition to carry on.

'These (veterans) were willing to sacrifice for and serve their country,' she said. 'They deserve regonition on Memorial Day.'