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Every Grave In Minnesota Military Cemetery Gets Flag For First Time In 35 Years

A nonprofit group raised more than $235,000 and enlisted 5,000 volunteers to make sure no headstone was overlooked this Memorial Day.
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By 

Reporter, HuffPost

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Planting a flag in front of every headstone in a military cemetery for Memorial Day may seem like a simple idea, but that task has gone unfulfilled for 35 years at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Until this year.

The nonprofit group Flags for Fort Snelling raised more than $235,000 and enlisted 5,000 volunteers to make sure that Old Glory was flying by every marble grave marker this holiday weekend, the Star Tribune reported.

“That’s Minnesota’s history. Our roots are laid to rest there,” Rocky Borchardt, co-founder of Flags for Fort Snelling, told the newspaper.

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The nonprofit organization Flags for Fort Snelling raised more than $235,000 to place a flag at every headstone in Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota for Memorial Day.
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Flags were once planted in front of every headstone, but the practice ceased as the cemetery grew. The effort was rekindled ― on a smaller scale ― about four years ago. Now, every grave will receive a flag.

Rob McKenna, a Navy veteran who has helped plant flags in the 436-acre cemetery since 2015, teared up as he spoke with a Star Tribune reporter. “It’s not the number, it’s the connection to each individual person,” McKenna said. “They gave everything.”

The flags will remain by each headstone until Thursday, KSTP, the local ABC affiliate, noted. Then the flags will be collected and stored for use next Memorial Day.

Before You Go

The Reason For Memorial Day
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A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks through a Memorial Day display of United States flags on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 23, 2013. (credit:Brian Snyder/Reuters)
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Two members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place flags at the headstones of U.S. military personnel buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in preparation for Memorial Day on May 25, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Win McNamee via Getty Images)
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A young woman lays down on the grave of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Noah Pier on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 31, 2010, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)
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Major Clint Kappel and his children in Section 60, the burial ground for military personnel killed since 2001, at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Allison Shelley via Getty Images)
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A woman sits at the edge of the field of United States flags displayed by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts on May 26, 2016. (credit:Brian Snyder / Reuters)
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Andi Schorr grieves at the grave of her husband Sergeant First Class George Joseph Schorr. Schorr served two tours of duty in Vietnam and died in 1979 of cancer. Memorial Day ceremony, 84th Anniversary of Remembrance at Fort Logan National Cemetery. May 30, 2016 in Denver. (credit:Joe Amon via Getty Images)
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Ricky Parada sits at the grave of his little brother Cpl. Nicolas D. Parada Rodriguez, who was killed in Afghanistan, on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 2012, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Mark Wilson via Getty Images)
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Lance Corporal Cameron Davis, of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, wraps himself in an American flag towel as he props up fallen flags while paying his respects to fellow service men and women at Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego on Sunday, May 25, 2014. (credit:Allen J. Schaben via Getty Images)
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A woman walks past graves on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
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Angela Spraul and her daughter Ava, 4, sit at the grave of her husband, John Spraul, U.S. Navy, on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 25, 2015, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Gabriella Demczuk via Getty Images)
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An Iraq War veteran sits and drinks a beer beside the symbolic graves of fallen friends, Sgt. Eric Snell and Pfc Michael Pittman, both from his former unit, the 1st Infantry Division, at the Arlington West Memorial on Memorial Day in Santa Monica, California, on May 30, 2011. (credit:MARK RALSTON via Getty Images)
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Felicity Bohn 11 of Littleton, Colorado visits the grave of Gregory P. Rund USMC. He was a close high school friend of her mother Lauren where they were survivors of the Columbine shootings. Lance Corporal Rund died Dec. 11 2004 as result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic achievement in connection with combat operations (credit:Joe Amon via Getty Images)
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Nathaniel Marley, 4, salutes the graves of service men and women as well as his grandpa as he is taught to pay respects and say thank you by his father, U.S. Army veteran Bruce Marley, of San Diego, not pictured, on a Memorial Day weekend at Rosecrans National Cemetery overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Point Loma, San Diego. (credit:Allen J. Schaben via Getty Images)
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Jeff Lee of Lantana, Florida, leans against the gravestone of his father, Frank Lee, during a Memorial Day ceremony at the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth, Florida, on May 27, 2013. (credit:Joe Skipper/Reuters)
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Navy veteran Ron White pauses to reflect for a moment as he adds the names of over 2,000 fallen military personnel who served in the war in Afghanistan to a 50-footwall at Chase Field during a Memorial Day game in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 27, 2013. (credit:Ralph Freso/Reuters)
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A soldier sits in front of a grave during Memorial Day celebrations at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Reuters)
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Ryan Buckingham of Camdenton, Missouri, touches the grave of his friend David Hortman during Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
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U.S. Army soldiers Rick Kolberg, left, and Jesus Gallegos embrace as they visit the graves of Raymond Jones and Peter Enos on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington on May 30, 2016. (credit:Lucas Jackson / Reuters)
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