Legionnaires and Boy Scouts to stir the pot for flag fundraiser

After several years purchasing flags to place at veterans’ graves, Boy Scouts of America Troop 4076, El Centro and Troop 4070, city of Imperial partnered with American Legion Post 25 to set up a specific fund to furnish local veteran graves with flags.

To support the account, the inaugural Spaghetti Plates fundraiser will be held from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at American Legion Post 25 Hall at 569 Broadway in El Centro. Tickets are $8 and guests can dine in or take out. The meal includes spaghetti with meat sauce, green salad and a dinner roll.

Walk-ins will be welcome. Tickets can be purchased at Post 25. All proceeds will go to purchase veteran graveside flags and PVC pipes to hold them in place.

For at least the prior five years, the two troops had been placing flags at Evergreen Cemetery, noted Victor Calderon, scoutmaster of Troop 4076. There are now nearly 1,600 flags at Evergreen yet many new graves with no flags. Traditionally, flags were placed on Memorial Day. But last year Calderon and Ross Simmons, Scoutmaster of Troop 4070, decided the veterans deserved to have the additional placement on Veterans Day. In November 2016, benefactors put up funds for 1,000 flags, noted Calderon.

“We want to expand the graveside project and that’s what the spaghetti dinner is supposed to do,” said Calderon. “We wanted to make sure we had a uniform stock of crisp, new flags and about 400 are tattered and we want all new ones by Memorial Day.”

In order to support ongoing efforts, Post 25 decided to pitch-in with volunteers to cook the dinner including the Legionnaires, sons of the Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary Post 25. There are also plans to have flags placed at Memory Gardens and Memorial Park. Cruz Abarca, a veteran who started the Imperial Valley Committee for Veterans to help restore the cemetery after years of neglect, had been informed of a future provision of flags there but as of yet no firm plans are in place.

“Ross and I are looking to leave a legacy for our troops such as an ongoing flag project that could last 20 years or more,” said Calderon.

All proceeds from the dinner will go toward the flag project noted Mario Soto, Post 25 legionnaire executive committee member and judge advocate. “The Boy Scouts sold 300 tickets and will prepare 400 meals,” said Soto. “So at $8 a plate were hoping to raise $3,200.”

For further information, visit www.facebook.com/americanlegionpost25elcentroca, or call 760-352-2964.

“We’ll be having the Boy Scouts assist with the cooking,” he added.