Ridgeway Legion remembers D-Day, honours veterans with 214 flags

Ridgeway’s Royal Canadian Legion planted flags on 214 veterans’ graves Saturday, but the branch’s Sergeant-at-Arms says the ceremony grows harder to staff every year.

Legion Branch 230 held its annual D-Day flag-laying ceremony June 6 at Ridgeway Memorial Cemetery on Farr Avenue, where members replace worn flags and set fresh ones on the graves of Canadian, American and British veterans.

Lesley Goodison, the branch’s Sergeant-at-Arms, told Fort Erie Radio the cemetery holds 214 veterans’ graves, including eight Americans and one British service member, with the remainder being Canadian.

“It’s important to remember our troops,” said Goodison. “It’s an honour to do this for them, and their families, and remember them.”

Branch 230 put out a public call for volunteers on Facebook, asking anyone available to come out June 6. Goodison was disappointed that only a handful showed up to take part in the veteran memorial tradition.

“Normally you get a nice crowd and it gets done quickly. It is a little sad,” said Goodison.

She recalled arriving one year to find no one had shown up at all, leaving her to go row by row through the full cemetery, pressing each flag staff into the ground beside every headstone, a job that took hours to finish alone.

Goodison said the branch places flags on every veteran’s grave in the cemetery without regard for which country the soldier served, treating Canadian, American and British service members the same.

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