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Scouts help veterans groups place flags at cemetery
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Ginny Parsons and her daughter Carli, age 8, place American flags on the headstones of veterans, Thursday evening at the Great Bend Cemetery. Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts joined members of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars in placing thousands of flags prior to the Memorial Day weekend. Carli is a Brownie in Troop 11135. - photo by Susan Thacker

Great Bend’s Veterans of Foreign Wars post family and American Legion post family worked with local scouts Thursday to place U.S. flags on graves in the Great Bend cemeteries and the two county-owned cemeteries north of town. 

Doug Fuhr with the VFW Post & Auxiliary 3111 said more than 2,500 flags were placed. Members of Girl Scout Troop 11135 and Boy Scout Troops 157 and 184 met his group and members of American Legion & Auxiliary Post 180 at the Veterans Circle in the Great Bend Main Cemetery to finish task.

Most graves of veterans had metal markers designed to hold a small flag but the youths were also advised to watch for additional graves that had been marked with a sticker or stones that mentioned military service.

Ginny Parsons showed her 8-year-old daughter Carli what to look for. “See, here’s one in the Army,” she said, as they identified veterans of World War I and World War II and various branches of service. Parsons’ husband is currently on active duty in the Army.

Carli grew up on an Army post so she’s familiar with the service, but decorating military graves was a new experience for the Girl Scout, who is in Brownies. After placing flags in their portion of the cemetery, Ginny planned to show her daughter where her grandfather, also a veteran, is buried.