Volunteers are needed for the Memorial Day planting of more than 1,200 flags in West Hartford’s Fairview Cemetery, scheduled for Saturday, May 16, 2026.

Submitted

Each year, West Hartford takes great pride in celebrating our veterans with a flag-planting event on the Saturday the weekend before Memorial Day.

There are more than 1,200 military graves in Fairview Cemetery, and community volunteers are asked to assist the American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96 in placing flags to honor their service to the United States on Saturday, May 16, 2026.

Volunteers are asked to assemble at 8:30 a.m. in the chapel’s garage bay for instructions on proper flag placement and a cemetery map indicating their assigned section. Everyone is welcome. If you can help, show up. You don’t need to register. Many hands make light work!

Please bring a screwdriver to prepare a hole in the ground for the flag’s placement.

Site unmarked as a veteran

Anyone with a relative or friend buried at Fairview Cemetery whose grave is not properly identified as a veteran’s grave should contact the cemetery office at 860-561-8136 to have a flag placed on the grave.

Tradition

The tradition of placing flags at graves for Memorial Day and Veterans Day is recognized throughout our country. At Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, over 280,000 individuals are buried, each with a headstone.

Veterans, residents, and West Hartford Boy and Girl Scout Troops have gathered at Fairview Cemetery to carry on this tradition initiated by the late Jean-Paul Berard over 40 years ago.

Collection of retired flags, May 16

The American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96 will also collect any American flag that is worn, torn, faded, or old. When an American flag is no longer in use, it is retired in a ceremony where it is burned. Flags will be collected from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 16, 2026.

Memorial Day ceremony, May 25 at 11 a.m.

The American Legion Post 96 and the Town of West Hartford will hold a brief Veterans Day ceremony on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at 11 a.m. at the Connecticut Veterans Memorial on the corner of North Main Street and Farmington Avenue, West Hartford Center.  If the weather is inclement, the ceremony will be relocated indoors to the community room at the Town Hall Auditorium, located at 50 South Main Street.

Removal of flags, Saturday, May 30 at 8:30 a.m.

Help is also needed to collect the small American flags and flag holders from the veterans’ gravesites so they can be stored and used again on Memorial Day. The collection will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, at Fairview Cemetery. Volunteers are asked to assemble at 8:30 a.m. at the chapel’s garage bay for instructions before starting. If you can help, come. No RSVP is needed. Many hands make light work. Thank you!

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