GLEN CARBON - A balloon release and a line of flags will commemorate the fallen during this year's Memorial Day Ceremony at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Glen Carbon.
More than 100 volunteers will meet at the cemetery at 5 a.m. this Monday to place 1,348 American flags - one for each veteran interred at the cemetery. Each flag will include information about the veterans - including their names, ranks, birth dates, death dates and plot location. This year will be the 23rd year the flags have been placed in the cemetery, Sunset Hill Family Services Director Jeanne Brunette said.
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"We also have a noon service honoring those veterans and their families with a balloon release," Brunette said.
Gates to the cemetery will open at 9 a.m. for those who would like to pay their respects to the fallen, or tour the cemetery.
The noon ceremony will include the balloon release mentioned above as well as remarks by veteran Larry Miller and a salutation of the flags. Volunteers will be stationed at the cemetery gates to collect donations for Glen Carbon area veterans' groups.
Flags in the cemetery will not be lowered until 4 p.m., Brunette said.
"We want people to come out and enjoy the day," she said.
Sunset Hill Cemetery is also offering a 25 percent discount for veterans who would like to be memorialized in the cemetery. That offer will go through June 30, 2017, and is open to any veteran who has been honorably discharged from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard.
