SAN ANTONIO – A nonprofit is putting out a call for volunteers and corporations to fund a service project that honors those buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on Memorial Day.
Flags for Fallen Vets organizes volunteers and funds to place flags at the cemetery, taking over the placement a few years ago.
Morrison Fussner started the nonprofit and has been helping to place flags at national cemeteries in Texas, Colorado, Florida and other states. Volunteers are needed for the upcoming placement.
“We ask them to say the veteran’s name after they’ve placed their flag and thank them. You know, you think about it, the veteran’s name probably hasn’t been said there since they were laid to rest,” he said. “So that’s important for us to have people do that.”
Volunteers are needed to place the flags before Memorial Day and to pick up the flags the Saturday following the holiday. The flags are then counted, and the damaged flags are disposed of, while the other flags are cleaned and dried, which takes several weeks to do.
The flags are then stored until the following holiday.
Fussner said the organization is also looking for corporate sponsors to fund the project into the future.
“We haven’t made our budget in San Antonio one year. This year we were $6,000 short, and that’s substantial. We had an $18,000 budget ... We must replace so many flags every year,” Fussner said.
He hopes churches, Cub Scout groups and other veteran organizations will make plans for next year’s Memorial Day holiday to donate or sign up to volunteer.
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