Members of the City of Greenfield’s street department and cemetery staff posted more than 800 flags at Park Cemetery on Friday in preparation for Memorial Day. The annual patriotic display has become a tradition at the local cemetery.
Shelley Swift | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — The grounds lining the road leading into Park Cemetery are once again covered in hundreds of American flags.
They’ve gone up every year in May for decades for Avenue of Flags, where they’ll remain for the next couple weeks.
Purchased by their loved ones, each flag represents a U.S. military veteran from Hancock County who has died. Dog tags on the flag poles display the veterans’ names and branches of service, and a kiosk on the grounds directs visitors to specific flags.
Bob Workman, a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran, Hancock County’s veterans services officer and a member of the Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard, said there are 864 flags this year.
Volunteers with local veterans organizations and the Greenfield Street Department put up the flags on Friday.
“It’s an honor to be able to do that for the veterans who passed away, and their families,” Workman said.
The flags will remain through Memorial Day on Monday, May 30, when at 11 a.m. the American Legion will host a ceremony that will include an address from Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell, prayer, a bugler playing “Taps” and a rifle salute.
“This town is really impressive to me, what they’ll do for veterans,” Workman said.
When Avenue of Flags needed a revamp in the past, it took two weeks to raise the $15,000 needed to do it, he recalled.
“They’re very patriotic people,” he said. “It’s just an honor to be part of that.”
Avenue of Flags’ popularity has organizers thinking about its inevitable expansion. Workman said there are currently enough empty slots in the ground for another 136 flags and estimates there’s enough room for another 700 after that.
Flags are $50 and order forms are available at the cemetery and Hancock County Veterans Services Office, located in the Hancock County Memorial Building at 98 E. North St. in Greenfield.
If damaged, flags are replaced at the honor guard’s cost.
