Students in Laurel Colborn’s AP United States History class explored the meaning of Memorial Day on Saturday, joining members of the American Legion Auxiliary post in Ojai to place American flags at the graves of veterans buried at the Nordhoff Cemetery.
The local American Legion Auxiliary post has been doing this for years, sometimes with no help from others.
But this year they had the help of 13 OVS students and a student from Nordhoff High School, all of whom spent part of Saturday morning at the city-owned Nordhoff Cemetery near the Arboloada.
“We are doing this because it is Memorial Day Weekend and that is the time when the United States recognizes and honors all the men and women who serve in the armed forces,” Mrs. Colborn said. “We’re doing this with the American Legion Auxiliary to help them out — it’s good for us and good for them.”
The flag planting initiative mirrored a similar effort at the Lower Campus, where younger OVS students on Friday helped tie ribbons on roses that military spouses were to place on graves at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura.
The roses are a key part of an annual Memorial Day ceremony held at Ivy Lawn, and this is the first year Lower Campus students have been involved in the project.
At Nordoff Cemetery, student volunteers fanned out from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to find the graves of veterans, placing a small American flag at each.
“I believe it’s important to recognize our veterans everyday and remember what they have sacrificed for this country, the one we live in and the one we get so many privileges from,” junior Jacob Tadlock said.
Throughout the course of the morning, the effort expanded into cleaning up the cemetery, weeding, and picking up trash.
Once all the graves were decorated, American Legion Auxiliary President Connie Biggers closed out the morning by talking to students about the significance of their undertaking.
“You are a part of what I call ‘the living history’ ” Biggers said. “I’m almost done with [my duty of] improving…tag, you’re it.”