5,000 volunteers plant flags at Calverton National Cemetery for Memorial Day

From rubber-banded bundles in the crook of her left elbow, Diana Hubschman took a single American flag. As high school classmate Joslyn Lawrence stood beside her, Hubschman planted the flag at the grave site of a military veteran.

The Girl Scouts were two of thousands of volunteers who met at Calverton National Cemetery on Saturday morning to plant flags — an annual Memorial Day weekend tradition that draws Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and veterans' organizations, among other students and adults.

As they traversed the rows of graves amid the manicured lawn, Hubschman and Lawrence gave time to each soldier.

"We're reading the names, we're looking at the ages, we're talking about the people," said Lawrence, 18, a senior at William Floyd High School. "I think it's important that we come and we celebrate the soldiers, and that we make sure that people are keeping their memories alive and remembering what they risked for our country."

This year, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County Service Unit 48 Coordinator Laura Sorgie estimated there were 5,000 total volunteers across organizations throughout the cemetery.

"We teach the girls that each flag represents a fallen hero, and we ask them to read the name out loud before they place the flag to give them, you know, their moment, and honor them, and to show respect for them," Sorgie said.

Some of the girls — Lawrence included — have been doing this since kindergarten and are graduating high school this year, Sorgie said. Hubschman started in the sixth grade, and both said they plan to come back next year as college students.

"It's such a beautiful event, and I always talk about it with my grandpa," said Hubschman, 17, whose grandfather is a Vietnam War veteran. "Nobody deserves to be forgotten when they helped create the world that we get to live in."

A rising sophomore at Cornell University, Olivia Phillips has been placing flags since she was a second-year Daisy in first grade. Now, she helps the younger girls push flags into the ground to understand the tradition, she said.

"People disagree, there's political polarization," said Phillips, of Mastic. "But, yet again, there's 5,000 people here that are coming together for the same reason."

That reason, she said, is to honor the flag and the people who have come and served before them.

"It brings the Island together," Phillips said. "You see the traffic coming here, you know, so many people."

Next weekend, she said, volunteers are needed to collect the flags.

To think that someone her own age served in the Vietnam War — and that the person could be her grandfather's age today — is "crazy," Lawrence said. Her grandfather served in Vietnam, too. 

In telling a friend about the event earlier in the week, Lawrence found herself thinking about the inherent tone. It seemed sad, her friend said; but to Lawrence, it does not.

"Coming here makes me happy," Lawrence said. "I like coming and remembering these people and remembering what they did, and remembering what they gave me."