A small group of volunteers spent a good share of their Saturday morning in service, placing small American flags on the graves of veterans at Oakdale Citizens Cemetery.

The flags were placed ahead of the Memorial Day observance on Monday, May 30. There was no formal ceremony at the cemetery on Monday, but the flags – many of them new – were placed on the graves to honor military members and honor their sacrifice.

Among the volunteers was teen Briana Gomez, who lives in Riverbank and attends Enochs High School, where she will be a senior in the fall. She is also President this year of the local Leo Club, which is the youth arm of the Lions Club.

She said her club recently donated $300 to the cemetery for purchase of new flags to mark the graves. The Leo Club is under the direction of the Oakdale Lions Club, a group her father is involved with locally.

“We do a lot of community service,” Briana said of the Leo Club, ranging from helping out with Easter celebrations locally, selling fruit at the Oakdale Farmers Market to raise money and more.

She also said her dad, Frank Gomez, is a veteran so getting involved with placing the flags for Memorial Day had special significance for her.

“My dad’s a veteran, my boyfriend’s grandfather served, my uncle served; I know a lot of veterans so it’s personal,” she explained.

Dad Frank Gomez was also there to help place flags and said they had a group of about eight working to place an estimated 800 flags on veterans’ graves on Saturday.

“I got drafted in 1966, during the Vietnam War,” Gomez said of his military service. “I ended up going to Germany because my brother was already in Vietnam.”

He said placing the flags over the weekend to make sure the service and sacrifice by veterans buried there is remembered was important.

“It’s very rewarding,” he said.