CARIBOU, Maine — The iconic Avenue of Flags at the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery in Caribou will once again be adorned with its stars and stripes during the annual Flag-Raising Ceremony on Monday, May 12.
Of the 30 flags lining the cemetery’s entrance, 29 of the raised flags will fly in memory of specific deceased veterans as arranged by family and friends. Those family and friends — as well as the general public — are invited to the cemetery for the ceremony, held at 11 a.m. on the 12th.
“It’s a feel-good atmosphere of people being able to come out and raise a flag to honor the memory of someone they love, and it’s quite emotional,” said Harry Hafford, chairman of the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery Corporation. “It’s a nice little ceremony; everyone that’s there has such pride in what they’re doing, and you can see it.”
Family and friends who wish to dedicate a flag in honor of a deceased veteran may arrange to do so by calling Hafford at 435-6024 or 768-0525. Those wishing to fly flags are asked to furnish its $40 cost, but Hafford assured that the Cemetery Corporation will provide a flag to fly in honor of a deceased veteran should the family/friends be unable to provide the $40.
The most common question Hafford and his fellow volunteers are asked is “do they have to be buried at the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery to raise a flag in their honor?”
“No,” Hafford said. “They don’t even have to be from Maine.”
From the morning the flags are raised, they’ll proudly fly until retired in mid-November and their impactive presence at the cemetery’s entrance is a sight to behold.
“The most common statement I hear is ‘what a great entrance for the cemetery,’” Hafford said with pride.
That pride extends well beyond Hafford and the 21 other volunteers with the NMVCC; to explain it, Hafford shared a story.
It took multiple projects for the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery to look as it does now; some of those projects were mandatory and other were “just for looks,” as Hafford said.
One of the mandatory projects was the creation of a retaining pond to account for the trees removed when the cemetery was created.
“With the retention pond came Canadian geese, and with Canadian geese … I don’t have to tell you what comes next,” Hafford said, shaking his head.
The cemetery required a goose management project to the tune of $35,000, plus another $15,000 for in-kind services; it took him five years to raise the money.
Creating the impressive Avenue of Flags took a fraction of that time.
“I set a goal of having a minimum of 20 flag poles, and said ‘if Augusta can raise money for 24 flag poles, surely we can get 20 up here,’” Hafford described. “Six months later I had money for 30 flag poles. I had $65,000 and people still wanting to buy a flag pole — but there wasn’t any more room,” he explained. “That tells you what people thought about that project. They fell in love with it.”
Even just last year, Hafford still had people approaching him offering funds to purchase more flag sites.
The Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery is located at 37 Lombard Road in Caribou.
