Service Project Kids Can Do: Honoring Others on Memorial Day

By Sheila @ Pennies of Time
June 4, 2013

This past Memorial Day, we met up with my parents to clean our grandfather’s gravesite and honor my grandfather who served in WWII and the Korean War. This is a time that we all enjoy as we tell stories of Grandpa, try and remember all those stories about the war that we thought we would never forget because he always told us them REPEATEDLY, and hope that as we repeat these stories the great-grandsons will develop an idea of who he was and why we remember him and other Veterans like him on Memorial Day.

One of the local Boy Scout Troops always puts a flag at each Veteran’s headstone on Memorial Day. It is an awesome sight to look across the cemetery and see all the flags waving gently as a reminder of just how many people have served for the freedoms that we enjoy.

Another group of people that we serve on this day are those with children that are now “in heaven.” Penny, an inspiration, for this site, went to heaven at the young age of 21 months. We can’t travel to Penny’s grave site to honor her. So, instead, we honor those children at the cemetery by cleaning the area around their graves and cleaning their headstones.

The boys and adults all participate in making the cemetery look better and well cared for on this day of remembering. We all cut, clean, collect trash, and honor those that have passed away before us. Almost every time, we find an elderly person visiting a loved one’s headstone, and we offer to clean the area. Always gets a big smile and a YES!