37,000 flags on Boston Common serve as touching Memorial Day tribute
BOSTON – Thousands of flags on Boston Common honor servicemen and women in Massachusetts. Every year it takes an army of volunteers to set up the Memorial Day display.
They showed up last week on the Boston Common for the 13th annual creation of the Memorial Day Flag Garden.
There are more than 37,000 flags in the ground to honor every Massachusetts fallen service hero since the Revolutionary War.
"So, it is wonderful and heartening every year to see the growing number of volunteers, particularly to see as we are in and out of COVID, to have hundreds of people showing up," Steve Kerrigan, co-founder of the Massachusetts Military Heroes fund.
Volunteers showed up from all over the state, many who were veterans. Some brought their children to help.
"I can't think of a better scenario for them than to come out and remember the service members. Men and women who have fought for our country and died and we plant a flag in their honor," army veteran Roger Knight said.
"I think the one thing that we forget is that we have a very small military, that is filled with volunteers and their families are volunteering as well and we are going about our lives everyday and that military allows us to enjoy our freedoms and our life here," said Sarah McMillan, a military mother.
More than 300 volunteers came together to create the Memorial Day flag garden that is one of remembrance and joy.
"It's a great feeling inside. You know, I can't wait to bring my kids, when everything is all done and then I can show them the spot that dad put. Tell them that I had a hand in that," volunteer Stanley Duplessy said.
Kerrigan said the display is intended to make people pause and remember on Memorial Day weekend.
"It's not just the grass and the colors that change around us, but the feeling changes. It becomes more of a solemn place," he said.