There are so many fallen soldiers buried at Riverside National Cemetery that the cemetery cannot afford to place a flag on every gravesite.
So a Southern California-based group is asking for help making sure the Stars and Stripes grace all of those headstones this Memorial Day.
Honoring Our Fallen has taken on responsibility for adorning the Riverside gravesites of some 100,000 soldiers, all at volunteers’ expense.
“Sadly, because of this, at least half of the gravesites are left empty each year,” the organization said on its website.
Riverside National Cemetery is the only national graveyard in Southern California that does not have an organized effort to make sure there is “a flag for every hero,” likely because of the expense that comes with having to adorn so many headstones, the organization said.
Each 8 x 12 inch flag costs about 50 cents. Honoring Our Fallen is aiming to put 100,000 flags – or $50,000 worth of Old Glory – throughout the cemetery this weekend.
Donations can be made by visiting Honoring Our Fallen's website, linked here.
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Volunteers will place flags at 9 a.m. Saturday either at Memorial Circle of the Amphitheater. They will retrieve the flags 2 p.m. Tuesday at either site.
