Governor and First Lady participate in grave flag ceremony

Governor Paul LePage and First Lady Ann LePage partnered with the Maine State American Legion to take part in a Grave Flag Ceremony on Memorial Weekend. The event took place on Saturday at the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Augusta.

Four other locations participated in the event including the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemeteries in Augusta, Springvale, and Caribou. Participants placed a flag on the grave of every veteran, totaling 14,000 throughout the state. The program was started in May of 2007, and the turnout in volunteers has steadily increased every year since.

“This Grave Flag Ceremony is a tremendous opportunity to pay respects to our veterans from all wars,” said First Lady Ann LePage. “I am honored to join the volunteers from all over Maine to participate in this event. Mainers are enormously supportive of our men and women in uniform, and our veterans, as demonstrated by this event,” continued the First Lady.

To date, over $25,000 in donations has been raised for this annual event. The flags, all tools needed to place the flags on the graves, plus the storage building to house the flags have been donated by private funding. Some 300 volunteers from World War II, 4H and Operation Military Kids, are expected on Saturday morning along with the Maine Public Safety Pipe and Drum Corps. These volunteers pay tribute to veterans buried in the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, ensuring that these brave men and women are not forgotten.