Flags for Fallen vets to decorate headstones at Sarasota National Cemetery for Memorial Day

PARRISH -- A feeling of pride and emotion washes over Meshia Richardson, when she walks into her Parrish garage and sees the bins containing 11,000 American flags that will decorate headstones at Sarasota National Cemetery during Memorial Day.

"It feels good to see the flags and know they are going some place special," said Richardson, event coordinator for Flags for Fallen Vets.

"Flags are permitted at each grave only one time a year, and that's during Memorial Day," she said.

Richardson began volunteering at Sarasota National Cemetery, the final resting place for her Navy veteran husband, Ronald Richardson, who died at 73 in 2015.

After she discovered there was no program to decorate headstones there with flags, she donated $100 to Flags for Fallen Vets. Late one night she mulled the fact that Sarasota National Cemetery lacked a flag program and decided to email Bob Fussner, a retired Marine sergeant who serves as president of Flags for Fallen Vets.

Surprisingly, she received an email reply at 2 a.m., got to know Fussner, and became local event coordinator for Sarasota National Cemetery.

In its first year, 2015, Richardson led a fundraising effort that netted $18,000 from individuals, veterans organizations and nonprofits, and organized a volunteer corps that was able to place a flag at every headstone at Sarasota National Cemetery.

"It touches my heart," Richardson said. "I couldn't be more thrilled."

Although the number of veterans at rest at the 295-acre Sarasota National Cemetery grows larger every year, the fundraising effort needed this year was not as large as in the start-up year.

All but $500 of the $4,500 needed to decorate each headstone at Sarasota National Cemetery has already been raised.

Richardson is also recruiting volunteers. About 50 showed up last Saturday to help prepare all those flags for Memorial Day.

"We had to set up tables in the parking lot. It was wonderful to see the community pull together for this," she said.

The process to set out flags for Memorial Day has an element of military precision.

"We have to be at the cemetery at 6:30 a.m. May 28, our section leaders report at 7 a.m., and all the volunteers need to be there at 7:30 a.m., with placement starting at 8 a.m. Last year we finished up before 10 a.m.," Richardson said. The cemetery has its Memorial Day service at 11 a.m.

Each of the bins packed with American flags is marked with the section of the cemetery where they will be placed.

Volunteers return to the cemetery at 10 a.m. June 2 to remove flags.

"I have my heart and soul in this. As long as I am alive, I will be involved," she said.

The non-profit Flags for Fallen Vets was established May 14, 2012, for the purpose of ensuring an American flag is placed on every veteran grave site at national cemeteries for Memorial Day.

"It's impressive," retired Lt. Col. Lee Kichen, chairman emeritus for the Sarasota National Cemetery Advisory Board, said of the flags placed at every headstone.

"It's good to see people have their hearts in it," Kichen said of Richardson and the other volunteers.

Flags for Fallen Vets volunteers must be registered and have a ticket. To make a donation for this program, visit flagsforfallenvets.com. For volunteer opportunities, call 941-448-6299.

James A. Jones Jr., Herald reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter@jajones1.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Flags for Fallen vets to decorate headstones at Sarasota National Cemetery for Memorial Day ."