The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Saluting those who died
Boy Scouts honor veterans at CT Trees Memorial
MIDDLETOWN — Local Boy Scouts weren’t able to place American flags on the graves of veterans buried at the state Veterans Cemetery on Memorial Day this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, so they seized upon the opportunity to take part in an equally respectful ceremony elsewhere in town.
Boy Scout Troop 41 Middletown, whose members range in age from 13 to 18, is sponsored by St. Mary of Czestochowa Church on South Main Street.
Committee member and former adult leader Tami Kapacziewski had helped place mulch around the trees for Doug Brown of the Connecticut Trees of Honor Memorial at Veterans Park to freshen up the area before the holiday, she said.
Brown was ready to begin on the America flag project when Kapacziewski immediately offered her Scouts to do the work.
“We teach our Scouts to always respect and honor our veterans,” she said. “It was a simple but wonderful thing these kids did.”
Traditionally, the boys place flags at the state cemetery on Bow Lane, but due
to COVID-19 restrictions that call for social distancing, that was not possible this year.
Outfitted in their Class A full dress uniforms, which includes sashes with the various badges each have earned, seven young men made their way around the circular path where the 65 Connecticut soldiers who lost their lives fighting in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are honored.
Each has a dedicated tree and granite pedestal at the park, a tranquil setting where a fountain in the middle of a pond surrounded by wild grasses provides a natural backdrop for visitors.
Fourteen-year-old Michal Kline played taps. The ceremony was a brief one.
“It’s been a great experience. We’re starting to get kids more and more involved in it, which is great, because the kids get a better understanding,” Kapacziewski explained. “They’ve really taken a liking to it.”
Scouts constantly are reminded of the sacrifices of servicemen and women.
“We teach them consistently that we all need to respect our veterans. It’s because of them we have the freedoms we do. Kids are starting to grasp that and respect it, which I think is great,” she added.
She instructed the boys to plant the flags in front of each waist-high monument, to the left of the stone, a position veterans prefer.
“You gently push it in until it’s stabilized in the ground. You take a step back and give them a full Scout salute, which is very similar to a military salute,” Kapacziewski said.
When they were done, the Scouts and leaders gathered in the center of the park next to the bronze statue, “First Tear,” a lifesize, commissioned work created by Vietnam veteran and sculptor Andrew Chernak of Springfield, Pa., according to the Trees of Honor website.
It is situated on a 30-inch light granite base in front of the three flagpoles in the ceremonial plaza, according to the organization.
“The kids were facing the pond. We had a leader on either end, the kids spaced out, and we placed Michael (Kline on the bugle) behind them,” she said.
That formation was chosen because the musician who plays taps during such ceremonies stands in the back, farther away from the main event, “where you don’t necessarily see them, you just hear them,” Kapacziewski said.
Even at their young age, the Scouts are mature when it comes to solemn events, she added. “They really do understand quite a bit, they really do. They take a lot of pleasure in doing it. They very feel proud they’ve done something good for their community.
“Every one of them jumped right in,” Kapacziewski added.
A group of motorcyclists pulled up to the park just before taps was played, so the Scouts waited for them to join in. “If they had a hat on, they took it off out of respect, and stayed quiet,” she said.
A few came over to the boys to thank them for their actions, Kapacziewski said. “The kids were tickled to death.”