Volunteering to honor veterans

Published 5:15 am Wednesday, May 15, 2019

There are more than 900 graves of local veterans at the Cullman City Cemetery. Over at Memory Gardens on the city’s southeast side, there are close to 350. And each year, organizers from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post put out the call for volunteers to help make sure there’s an American flag standing proud at the head of each one in time for Memorial Day.

This year, as in years past, those volunteers will meet at the City Cemetery to walk the lanes and plant the flags. From there, some will move on the repeat the effort at Memory Gardens. Organizer Van Hutchins says he expects this year’s volunteer turnout to be strong — but with more than 1,000 graves to cover, he’s always delighted when more people turn up to show their support.

“The more, the merrier,” said Hutchins, himself a Vietnam veteran and a lifetime VFW member. “It varies from year to year. Several years ago, we had probably 18 to 20 people doing it, but I’ve run ads to get the word out, and last year we had 42 people.

The flags aren’t cheap (a box of twelve dozen of the small ones used as grave decorations costs $122, says Hutchins). So to make sure they can be retrieved and re-used, Hutchins hand-paints an identifying color on the tip of each of the small flagpoles, assuring they’ll remain in service in the years to come. This year, he said, he’s already marked 1,108 flags.

That means this year’s volunteer flag-planting day, scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday, May 23 (or the following day in case of rain), will need all the help it can get — not only to plant the flags, but to remove them once Memorial Day is past. That day comes at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 28 (or the following day, in case of rain). Memorial Day itself falls on Monday, May 27.

For information on how your or your group can volunteer, contact the VFW at 256-739-6611 or Van Hutchins at 256-735-3593.