BIDDEFORD – It is a tradition here that stretches back well over 20 years — young people from local schools placing flags on the graves of veterans before Memorial Day.

It is also a tradition that members of the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club  place flags too, and so they were all out on the Friday before Memorial Day to do their bit at St. Joseph Cemetery.

Biddeford Intermediate School teacher Lori Flynn said the students — all from fourth grade — had a “walking field trip” to the cemetery from the school. She said they have a conversation about respect, and serving the community, and the children learn how to place the flag — and then they’re off, looking for graves that bear symbols that show a veteran is buried there.

Zachary Villandry placed a flag near the gravestone for John Maddox, who served in the U.S. Army in Korea, and passed away in 1988.

Leigham Puthoff placed a flag at the marker for Paul Omer Menard, who served in the U.S. Navy, and died in 1966.

An estimated 2,000 veterans are buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

American Legion member Ralph Goulet, who served with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era, has organized the flag-placing at St. Joseph’s for 30 years and spoke with the groups of children before they began placing the flags, talking with them about Memorial Day.

Rotarian Martin Grohman has been the Rotary club’s liaison with the schools since 2014.

“What’s so powerful about this is that these are the ancestors of these kids,” said Grohman.

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