Charles City VFW plants new flags for Memorial Day weekend

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Charles City cemeteries were adorned with red, white and blue over the weekend as volunteers from the VFW Post 3914 spread out to decorate the graves of veterans with American flags ahead of Memorial Day.

“We got quite a few volunteers this year,” said Post Commander Denny Hull, who guided a small army of volunteers out across Riverside Cemetery on Friday morning. “It’s quite an honor to be able to put flags out on the graves.”

This year the flags are looking better than ever thanks to Chris Tonn, who donated 750 new flags on behalf of her late husband, Marine veteran William Tonn.

“I decided that I wanted to help update these,” said Tonn.

Bigger and in better shape than the VFW’s existing stock, the new flags will serve the community for quite some time.

“It was quite a donation,” said Hull.

With more than a 1,000 veterans in Riverside Cemetery alone, to say nothing about other cemeteries like Calvary and Sunnyside, planting flags on veteran graves is a big task for the VFW, but a good mix of experienced volunteers and first-timers helped get the job done.

The flags stayed up through the weekend and into Memorial Day with plans to, weather permitting, take them back down on Tuesday.