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Celebrating Veterans

Richmond Register - 5/15/2021

May 15—Memorial Day is fast approaching and organizations in Madison County are going out of their way to show their support and gratitude to the veterans buried in the county.

Flags for Veterans- Madison County

Flags for Veterans- Madison County, a group headed up by Spencer Guiley, Philip Seyfrit, and Kenneth Baker will be the first group to be seen putting flags out by graves in Madison County.

"We're just three guys who want to make sure this is done," Guiley said. He explained the group tries to focus on cemeteries located in more rural parts of Madison County, which any other organization does not cover. Not all of the cemeteries this group visits are active; Guiley said a few of them hadn't been used for several years. However, he said it is still essential to show their gratitude for those who have served.

"When my generation, or the next, loses the importance of going to visit their ancestors... That's when we really lose the history and the respect on a wider scale," Guiley said.

Flags for Veterans — Madison County will be visiting Flatwoods Cemetery, College Hill Cemetery, and Maple Grove Cemetery on May 16. Guiley said the day will start at 2 p.m. at Flatwoods Cemetery and will end at 4 p.m. at Maple Woods Cemetery. Volunteers are welcome to come to help place flags on veteran's tombstones during those times.

Guiley said people do donate money for the flags. And every flag they buy, whether through donations or not, wind up on a veteran's grave. He said they try to buy two spec flags like those found at the Arlington Cemetery. Then, the flags are placed on the graves and left there. This year, the group has gone back through, and if the flag is still there and is tattered or torn, they have taken them and donated them to the tattered flag drives.

To find veterans' gravesites, the group goes by official veteran markers on the graves, or if someone tells them where a veteran is buried. He explained there are some exceptions to this rule, though. For example, Guiley said a few confederate soldiers buried in Madison County do not have a marker, but the group will still put a flag by their grave.

"If this project isn't important, then my question is why should we remember you 100 years from now," Guiley asked after The Register inquired why he thought projects such as this are important. "This project is all about making sure these veterans are remembered... These people who are buried in rural Madison County chose not to be buried in a national cemetery. It was a choice they made to be buried with their family. So they have just as much right and reason to be remembered as the people buried in the national cemeteries."

If you would like to donate, you can go to the group's Facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/flags4vetsky — and contact them through there.

Friends of Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery, Inc.

The Friends of Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery will be working to clean up two cemeteries on May 22.

These two cemeteries were created when the Bluegrass Army Depot was created back in 1942. They were made after the depot exhumed the remains from the graveyards on the 150 farms bought to develop the depot. The bodies then went to two cemeteries, one for Caucasians (the Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery) and another for the Blacks (Speedwell Cemetery).

Then, due to a failure of the trusts set up to maintain the two cemeteries, they became neglected and abandoned. But, Stewart Davidson found them. So, Davidson created The Friends of Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery as a way to salvage and restore them.

May 22 will be a volunteer clean-up day for both of the cemeteries. People who would like to volunteer can meet at The Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery at 9 a.m. He explained volunteers need to have boots and gloves and to bring whatever tools they may need.

On May 25, Davidson will put out a flag at the Bluegrass Memorial Cemetery to celebrate Memorial Day.

Madison County Veterans

Madison County Veterans will be meeting on May 24 at 5 p.m. to place flags on veteran's graves at the Richmond Cemetery. They will then be going to the Memorial Gardens on May 28 around 5 p.m. to place flags by graves.

Though Boyscout Troop 118 will be helping to place the flags, the event is open to volunteers.

"The whole thing for Memorial Day is in remembrance for the veterans who have passed and gone one, or were killed in action or in the war," Mike Boyd, chairman, said. He explained the group puts flags on graves from WW1, WW2, the Korean War, and more.

Boyd said they usually place a ballpark number of 2,000 flags between the different cemeteries.

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(c)2021 the Richmond Register (Richmond, Ky.)

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