Memorial Day
RIVERSIDE (CNS) – Those seeking to pay homage to the nation’s fallen servicemen and women are encouraged to join a Memorial Day weekend mission at Riverside National Cemetery, where volunteers will place miniature American flags alongside more than 250,000 grave sites.
The “Flag for Every Hero” event is slated for 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday beginning with a brief ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater in the middle of the cemetery.
Brennan Leininger, who inaugurated the walks more than a decade ago with the help of Garden Grove-based nonprofit Honoring Our Fallen, said the “emotional experience that results from participating in this event is what it is all about.”
The walks, first organized in 2012, are conducted not only on Memorial Day weekend, but also on Veterans Day.
Boy Scouts, police Explorers, Civil Air Patrol cadets, unions and other interested parties from the Inland Empire take part in the walks, which have drawn upwards of 1,500 volunteers in the past.
When the events began in 2012, participants were able to reach only 21,000 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.
Since then, flags have been erected at every grave within three hours.
Leininger, an honorably discharged U.S. Air Force serviceman who became a police officer, visited the cemetery in 2011 and was dismayed by how few flags were flying, prompting him to start the placements, ultimately in partnership with Honoring Our Fallen.
Leininger’s group later joined with Riverside resident Mary Ellen Gruendyke to ensure all graves receive a flag. Gruendyke had contributed money and time to the effort long before 2012.
The 900-acre national cemetery is the fourth-largest of its kind in the nation — and running out of space.
Additional information is available at www.honoringourfallen.org.
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