RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – An annual mission to erect miniature American flags alongside tens of thousands of graves at Riverside National Cemetery on the weekend before Veterans Day may be nixed this year due to the federal government shutdown, organizers confirmed today.
“Due to the ongoing shutdown, the cemetery is operating with a very reduced crew, which may impact their ability to accommodate our over 1,000 volunteers,” Garden Grove-based Honoring Our Fallen founder Laura Herzog told City News Service. “We remain hopeful that we can find a way to proceed with the flag placements.”
Traditionally, the nonprofit’s volunteers, which typically include Boy Scout troops, Civil Air Patrol cadets, members of various unions and their families, former military personnel and others, deploy the weekend prior to Veterans Day for a four-hour walk throughout the cemetery’s 900 acres — 70 sections — to erect the small flags, routinely reaching all of the nearly 250,000 burial plots…