© 2024 WVIK
Listen at 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM in the Quad Cities, 95.9 FM in Dubuque, or on the WVIK app!
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Community

National Cemetery Prepares for Memorial Day

Rock Island National Cemetery
Placing flags for Memorial Day

Volunteers will help the National Cemetery on Arsenal Island prepare for Memorial Day. Thursday afternoon, local residents will help cemetery staff put out 32,000 flags.

Cemetery director, Scott Lamb, says last year 350-400 people showed up, and had every grave decorated within just an hour. The volunteers use something called a "poker" to make a small hole next to each headstone.
Flag placement begins at 4 pm Thursday, and Lamb says volunteers should come early so they have time to park and get instructions. 


The Memorial Day ceremony will be held on Monday at 10:45 am.

Volunteers will also be needed on Tuesday morning, weather permitting, to collect the flags and put them back into storage. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.