Legion members, township councillors and community members placed Canadian flags at the graves of veterans in Tara’s Hillcrest Cemetery Friday to mark Decoration Day.
Decoration Day has been observed in early June in Canada since 1890.
In Tara, Legion Immediate Past President Brenda Funston says there are close to 200 veterans buried at Hillcrest Cemetery.
“World War I, World War II and soldiers that have died since then, but veterans also include RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police are also classified as veterans,” says Funston explaining which headstones have flags in front of them.
Mayor Steve Hammell, Deputy Mayor Jennifer Shaw and councillors Peter Steinacker and Ryan Nickason placed
numerous flags at the graves of veterans Friday.
Funston says some of the veterans’ headstones have small plaques marking them as having served that are placed on the stone and maintained by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 383. She says there are some headstones belonging to veterans that do not have plates, because the legion needs the approval of family in order to place one on a headstone.
She says, “If anybody knows of a veteran that’s buried here…because if they lived somewhere else and they’re buried here, we might not know about them if they’re in a family plot, so we encourage families to let us know so we can decorate them with a flag and with our memorial plaque.”
Funston, who has spent considerable time researching local veterans and those buried at Hillcrest says, “There’s actually quite a few that were killed overseas but the families have put their names on their tombstones, so we also decorate them, but they’re buried overseas.” She notes, the legion is not aware of any Korean War veterans buried at Hillcrest. There is one headstone for an American, Lt.William Briggs who served in US Navy in the Vietnam War.
Mayor Steve Hammell says “It’s very humbling, very filled with gratitude to our 383 legion here, our legion members that are doing so much for our community. Just in the Hillcrest Cemetery here, seeing so many flags. We’re not a large community, but we had a large presence. Close to 200 flags, 200 people.”
Meanwhile, Funston says the local Odd Fellows lodge, which has also recognized Decoration Day for decades, is planning a ceremony at Hillcrest on Sunday afternoon, and all are welcome to attend.
Councillors Steinacker and Nickason place flags
L-R Mayor Steve Hammell, Councillor Ryan Nickason, Councillor Peter Steinacker, Deputy Mayor Jennifer Shaw