<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Scouts pay veterans’ graves their due respect

Cemetery visits, decorations part of understanding history

By , Columbian Health Reporter
Published:
2 Photos
Webelos scouts Austin Harvey, left, and Jack Kolosvary, both 10, decorate veterans' graves Saturday at Mother Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
Webelos scouts Austin Harvey, left, and Jack Kolosvary, both 10, decorate veterans' graves Saturday at Mother Joseph Catholic Cemetery. Photo Gallery

Austin Harvey knelt before a gravestone and ran his finger over the U.S. Navy emblem adorning the stone. He read the name on the gravestone, Fred K. Kellum, and noticed the veteran died at the age of 32.

“Wow, he was young,” the 10-year-old said.

He pushed a wooden stick with a small American flag attached into the soggy ground as his friend and fellow Webelos scout Jack Kolosvary placed a white wooden cross on the other side of the gravestone.

Not far behind the boys were Austin’s mother, Brenda Harvey, and 5-year-old sister, Natalie. The pair followed behind the scouts and placed a single red rose at the top of the gravestone.

Austin and Jack were just two of dozens of Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts walking up and down the rows of gravestones at the Mother Joseph Catholic Cemetery Saturday morning. Across the county, hundreds of scouts decorated the gravestones of veterans buried in small, sometimes overlooked, cemeteries. For nearly a decade, scouts in Clark County have recognized the veterans every Memorial Day.

Tip: you can interact with this map using your fingerscursor (or two fingers on touch screens)cursor. Map

“The goal is that no veteran is left unnoted,” said Jon Holtz, an event organizer and American Legion 176 member.

This Memorial Day is no different.

“We’re doing this because it’s Memorial Day,” said Jack, 10. “And we’re honoring the men and women who served in the war for us.”

“We need to give them respect because they fought for us,” Austin said.

“And gave us freedom,” Jack added.

Brenda Harvey, whose husband, John, is a den leader with Pack 493, said her whole family came to the event to honor past soldiers and remind the children of veterans’ sacrifices.

“It’s a remembrance of those who went before us and served our country for my kids’ freedom,” she said. “It becomes a reality for them.”

As the scouts walked through the cemetery, they read the inscriptions on the gravestones, scanning for military ranks, names of wars or branch emblems. Austin and Jack placed flags, crosses and roses on the gravestones of a Navy veteran of the Korean War, an Army captain in World War II and a veteran who died on Jack’s birthday.

In less than an hour, rows of flags and crosses filled the cemetery.

Mason Sherbahm, 8, and Gavin Gumm, 9, both members of Cub Scout Pack 770, named the veterans and soldiers they know. Gavin’s two grandpas and his great-grandpa served in the military. Mason’s older brother left for boot camp last week. The 8-year-old shaved off his blond hair, just like his brother had.

While placing flags in the cemetery, the pack found gravestones of veterans who served in World Wars I and II, Vietnam and Korea, Gavin said. Those men and women fought to keep other countries from taking over the U.S., he said.

“We want to thank our veterans,” Gavin said.

“And respect them,” Mason added.

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.

Loading...
Tags
 
Columbian Health Reporter