Youth show the flag at cemetery

Heart of Oregon Youth Build students, volunteers and staff joined representatives from local veterans organizations in a cemetery cleanup and flag placement ceremony at Camp Polk Cemetery on Wednesday, May 24, in honor of Memorial Day.

Students arrived on site and ready to get to work at 9 a.m. Split into teams, each student set out to find one of the 39 veterans' gravesites located at the historic cemetery. Their mission was to weed, rake, and do general cleanup on their specific site. After each veteran's grave was taken care of students moved on to rake, weed-whack, and work on the remainder of the cemetery.

Heart of Oregon YouthBuild is a nonprofit that engages young people who face major barriers to success. Designed for students aged 16-24 from throughout Central Oregon, the program provides job skills training, education, and leadership development.

Young people in the program work in hands-on outdoor environments and focus on projects that improve the community. Students earn a weekly stipend or minimum wage for their work and can earn college scholarships. Students also prepare for their GED or college classes by learning math and writing, as well as career planning skills.

One of the Heart of Oregon students, 17-year-old Raymond Hendricks, enjoys the community service part of Youth Build and was really looking forward to the cemetery cleanup.

"I feel like this will be my favorite project we've done," he said. "We will be helping people that are kinda helpless; these people deserve this."

Hendricks has been with the program since the end of November last year. He talks about struggling in traditional school - getting bad grades and generally not doing well.

"It gave me another chance to do well in school and succeed in life," he said. "I wake up and want to go to school."

The Camp Polk Cemetery cleanup continued until 11 a.m. when the students and volunteers broke for lunch, which was donated by McDonald's of Sisters.

After lunch the local V.F.W. Post 8138 and American Legion Post 86 gave a history of the cemetery to the students, along with a discussion of the history of Memorial Day. An American flag was raised and students once again headed out to different parts of the local cemetery to place flags on all of the graves.

Local veteran and American Legion Post Commander Lance Trowbridge shared a bit of his family history and connection to the cemetery. Trowbridge's father and uncle, both veterans, are interred at Camp Polk.

Some of the veterans lingered after all of the students and volunteers left. Pride showed on their faces after the cleanup and ceremony had concluded.

"These kids worked really hard," said V.F.W. Post Commander Bill Anttila. "They deserve all the accolades they can get."