On Nov. 9, Patagonia High School Honors Society students volunteered to help with the annual “Honor the Vets” day at the Patagonia Cemetery. This is a project of The Patagonia Museum. Nine high school students and their advisor participated in this important task.
The event started with a general trash clean up throughout the whole area. When the students were done, the cemetery had a new appearance and the litter bags were piled high. The next effort was to place new flags on the veterans’ gravesites. First, we all gathered at the main flagpole to replace the large flag there. We said the “Pledge of Allegiance” as the new flag was raised and had an active discussion of the words and meaning of this pledge.
The students then walked through the whole cemetery to replace worn or faded flags. The graveside flags are now flown on each grave year-round and need periodic maintenance.
It was great to see these young people visiting each veteran’s gravesite, look it over and then decide if the flag needed replacement. The honor students replaced 60 of the over 100 flags. When they were done, they took pride in seeing all the new and brightly colored red, white and Blue flags shining in the sun.
The Patagonia High School National Honors Society made a great contribution to the care and honor of our deceased veterans at the Patagonia Cemetery.