“It’s not about us, it’s about the veterans who gave everything,” says Jeff Lewis of Memorial Day. Lewis is one of scores of local volunteers who gather each year on Memorial Day weekend to erect full-size 3-foot by 5-foot American flags at the graves of veterans in Memorial Gardens on Veterans Drive in Traverse City.

A dedicated cadre of flag raisers arrived at 7am Saturday to begin putting more than 700 flags in place; at 5pm they took them all down, only to repeat the solemn process Sunday and again this morning (Memorial Day). Each day it takes hours to get all the flags in place, depending on the number of volunteers. “At the minimum it takes dozens of volunteers to get it done,” says Lewis. “One year we put up 600 flags in 23 minutes.”

The flag-raising ceremony began in 1949 and the flags were kept in place all weekend. But a few years ago an overnight storm with high winds damaged dozens of the banners and it was decided to take them down each night; vandalism was also a factor.

Veterans groups, churches and other organizations often send volunteers. “On a good day we get a couple hundred volunteers to help, but sometimes its only 30 or 40,” says Lewis, who did a stint in the U.S. Marines from 1979-86. “When all the flags are up and waving, it’s a beautiful sight. It’s just amazing.”

Another tribute to fallen veterans will begin at 10am this morning (Monday) at Memorial Park on 11th Street in Traverse City. Coast Guard Air Station TC, the 182nd Reserve Unit, the National Guard and members of the Kingsley High School Choir will participate. National Guard Chaplain Major Bryan Martinus will deliver the featured address. WTCM-AM radio will broadcast the ceremony (The Ticker is sponsoring the event). Trumpeter Don Sattler will close the program with “Taps,” the poignant military.

“I do this to try to pay back the veterans and for people who have lost loved ones,” says Sattler, a retired Central Grade School teacher whose performances have been a staple at the Memorial Day services for almost two decades. “Almost always I get someone to come up to me and say ‘You made me cry,’ I try to make it heartfelt.”