When Danny Blanchard and the Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Beaumont first began their annual Memorial Day Flag Placement event, it was difficult to place a miniature United States of America flag by every one of the roughly 6,000 to 10,000 Beaumont military veterans graves in the 120-acre cemetery.
But during the course of the last few years, local Boy Scout packs began volunteering their time to help Blanchard, the Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Park general manager, find and place flags by the military graves.
On Saturday, the annual tradition continued.
“If you look five to 10 years ago, there was hardly anyone out here helping us,” Blanchard said. “The Boys Scouts and other groups joined in to help us. It’s really inspiring when you look all across the cemetery to see how many people who served our country are from Beaumont.”
About 30 local Boy Scouts members helped scatter about 6,000 miniature flags all throughout the cemetery. Frankie Domino, a 7-year Boy Scout member, said he understands the importance and significance of the Flag Placement event and was excited to take part in the ceremony.
“It helps the (military veteran) families when they come down to the (cemetery) to remember their loved ones who have passed away and I enjoy doing this for the families,” Frankie said.
The idea of remembering past, local military veterans is one Pack No. 181 Cubmaster David Hoerner looked to provide context to before the Flag Placement event. He saw an opportunity to teach the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts about the significance of Memorial Day and the importance of honoring military veterans.
“It’s important for us to come out here and pay our respect,” Hoerner said. “A soldier dies two deaths. One, when they actually die and the grieving process. The second one is when they’re forgotten. We want to try and push off the one when they’re forgotten as far as possible”
The Boy Scouts started the event at 8 a.m. and began playing taps before Frankie, who said he placed more than 50 flags, and others scattered throughout the cemetery to find the graves.
The cemetery is home to three military veteran memorials — the Veteran Wall, the Spanish-American War memorial and the American Legion section. The Veteran Wall is the focal point of the three and sits just to the right of the cemetery’s entrance. The veteran wall has 10 slabs with the name of each Beaumont military veteran who has died along with nine flags standing just behind the wall.
When all the flags were placed, many of the Boy Scouts gathered by the Veteran Wall for one last photo.
Saturday’s Flag Placement is the precursor to Forest Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Park’s main celebration, the Flag retirement ceremony on Monday — Memorial Day.
The keynote speaker for the Memorial Day celebration will be Major Katie Higgins Cook, the first woman Blue Angel pilot.
jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com
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