Flags to be placed on headstones
By Greg Seubert
Memorial Day activities will not be held this year at the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery or Wisconsin Veterans Home.
In the past, local military groups held a waterfront ceremony in front of the Wisconsin Veterans Home before a program at the cemetery.
Neither will be held this year on Monday, May 25, because of COVID-19 concerns.
“There will be no program at the cemetery for Memorial Day this year,” cemetery director Chris Foster said. “Instead, there will be a virtual program online that will be accessible through the cemetery website or at www.wisvetsmemorialday2020.com.”
The cemetery, a final resting place for more than 6,600 veterans, is open to visitors from sunrise to sundown daily.
Volunteers have placed flags on thousands of headstones in the cemetery and that tradition will continue, according to Foster.
“We will be placing flags on graves,” he said. “However, it will not be done by a mass gathering of volunteers. Instead, we have groups of volunteers that have come forward and will be placing flags while maintaining appropriate distance. The flags will be up and ready for visitors by sundown on Friday, May 22.”
Flags will not be placed on graves on Memorial Day morning, as in the past.
“In a ‘normal’ year, we will set flags at 6 p.m. on the Thursday evening prior to Memorial Day,” Foster said. “The reason for this change is because we want to make sure all of the visitors who come to the cemetery over the weekend get a chance to see the flags rather than only having flags up for a single day when most visitors have already come and gone over the weekend. This, of course, does not apply until Memorial Day 2021.”