Melissa Volkers and her friends put 500 snowflakes into the ground outside her home in Greenleaf, each snowflake features the name of a hero who took their own life while serving in the military.
On December 7, 2013, Melissa Volkers had the worst day of her life when she learned that her son Tanner, who quickly reached the rank of staff sergeant in the Air Force, took his own life at the age of 22.
“He was a happy-go-lucky kid from day one. Everyone commented on how he smiled all the time,” said Volkers. “He was also very patriotic, and it is the same thing that took him from us, but he was proud until the last moment, I know he was.”
Melissa Volkers honors her son and other service members by putting together a memorial made of snowflakes. We did a story with her back in 2019 when it was called Operation Snowflake; now it has been changed to Tanner’s Snowflake Project…