FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ST. LOUIS—Approximately 4,000 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers on Sunday will decorate each of the 183,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery with an American Flag during the 62nd annual Memorial Day “Good Turn.”
The public is welcome to attend the event, held by the
Gravois Trail District of the Greater St. Louis Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. Scouts from across the council will assemble at the National Guard base and march into the cemetery at 12:30 p.m. They will proceed to the main flagpole near the center of the cemetery for a 20-minute assembly and ceremony.
Dr. John A. Glover, a retired colonel from the United States Air Force, will be the speaker.
He is the Historian for the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Scouts will honor those who served our country by raising the American flag and then lowering it to half-mast as Scout buglers play “Taps.” Scouts who earned the rank of
Eagle Scout—the highest rank in Scouting—during the past year will serve as the color guard. Scouts and leaders will then decorate each grave in the cemetery with a small American Flag.
It takes less than two hours for Scouts to place more than 141,000 flags, which are provided by the cemetery.
Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery is one of the oldest interment sites of the
National Cemetery Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs. Its 331 acres served as a burial landscape for soldiers since the Civil War.
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Editor's Note: The Jewish Relationships Committee invites all Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturers, leaders and parents to help place 4,500 flags on the graves of Jewish war veterans at several Jewish cemeteries. They will meet at 7 a.m. on Sunday, May 29, at the Jewish Federation Building, 12 Millstone Campus Dr. (63146). Breakfast of bagels, eggs, milk and juice will be served at 7 a.m. Please RSVP to Earl Binder, Chairman, Jewish Relationships Committee at 636.256.6534 or
Earlbinder@Charter.Net
