Monticello Rotary Club seeks help to honor local Veterans

by Sally Jack
The Rotary Club has undertaken a special project to see that each veteran in the Monticello Cemetery is honored with an appropriate headstone, and they are hopeful that the people in the community can help them bring this goal to fruition. They are looking for contact information for family members of these veterans. They could also use help putting up flags and crosses at the cemetery in preparation for Veterans Day.
Each year on Veterans Day and Memorial Day the Monticello Rotary Club honors deceased veterans at the Monticello Cemetery with a cross and an American flag.
Rotary member Curtis Henderson relates that for the last several years as they placed the flags on more than 200 veteran’s graves, they noticed that there were several veterans who either did not have a grave marker, or did not have appropriate markers. Curtis commented, “These veterans have served their country. It’s sad that they’ve been forgotten.”
The cemetery project began as a result of this discovery, and in June the club was able to procure and set a marker for Mike Crittenden. But there are eight more veterans who still need markers. “We would like to make sure all of these veterans have the gravestone they deserve,” Henderson says.
The VA will provide and ship free headstones for veterans. This includes a space on the stone for a personalized message from the family or sponsor. However, the setting of the headstone is not free. The requester of the headstone—in this case the Rotary Club—will still need to pay to have it set. Setting of the stone costs $400 or more for each one.
In addition, the VA requires paperwork to be completed. This can be challenging if you are not family. The process goes so much more quickly when there is a surviving family member that can be included in the application. Without a family contact, procuring the discharge form that the VA needs can be a long drawn out process.
This is where you, the reader, can play an important part in this project. Club members need help finding and contacting the families of these eight veterans who do not have full-size headstones. They are:
· Joseph Jesse Miller
· Felician Horreno
· William Jesse Wegner
· James E. Wegner
· Edwin Joe Saltzman
· Charles Poeling
· William Henry Bailey
· Phillip Seiber
If you have contact information for family members of any of the veterans listed above, please contact the Rotary Club by calling Curtis Henderson at 801-750-6813 or Doug Allen at 435-979-3090.
Donations to help offset the cost of setting the stones will also be gratefully accepted.
On Saturday November 9, club members will be placing 230 crosses and flags on veteran graves in honor of Veterans Day and will gladly welcome anyone who would like to come and help. If you can’t make it this time, they will be glad for your help with crosses and flags in the future as well. Please contact Curtis or Doug if you are interested.