In Carbon County, visit any cemetery and you will see rows and rows of American flags, held up by metal flag markers showing that the deceased served his or her country.

These markers are a symbol of sacrifice, love of country, loyalty and courage.

But as they stand watch over our many veterans who have passed, weather elements, vandalism and time takes its toll on the markers, weakening the metal fasteners that secure the marker to its base.

After time, American flags droop as the once-sturdy metal loosens, revealing the age and wear on these sentinels.

A group Carbon Career & Technical Institute students are making it their mission to make sure veterans’ flag markers remain strong by rebuilding and restoring broken and deteriorated markers back to their nearly original state.

Donivan Dailey, Tanner Strohl and Dillon Ahner have developed a way to cut, mold and weld new metal fasteners onto broken flag markers and are using this community service project as their SkillsUSA project in the upcoming competition in Hershey.

Last week, Daily and Strohl showcased their project at the Carbon County Commissioners meeting. Ahner was unable to attend.

“What happens with them is through time, they get damaged and there is no solution to fix them that costs less,” Dailey said. “I brought this project to CCTI and the solution we came up with was fixing the tabs on the back by recreating the original ones.”

Strohl explained the process starts with a piece of aluminum square stock that is cut and then molded to create a U shape using the equipment the students are learning to use in their precision machine technology class.

The piece is then welded onto the marker to create a new fastener for either the flag or the rod base.

Kevin Kuehner, precision machine instructor at CCTI, said that the markers are then restored to their 100 percent state, meaning that if a World War I veteran marker, which is made out of bronze, comes in to be repaired, the students, in addition to making any repairs, restore it back to its original state before it is placed back on that veteran’s grave.

“The students learn a lot from this process,” Kuehner said, adding that this is teaching the students to contribute back to the community and has built partnerships with various machines shops who have been donating metal pieces for the project. “It’s a win-win situation because the community benefits and the students benefit.”

To date, the trio fixed approximately 14 markers since beginning the project last year.

Henry Desrosiers, Carbon County Veterans Affairs director, commended the boys for honoring the veterans through this project.

“What they’re doing is a great thing,” he said.

Desrosiers added that Carbon County does replace damaged flag markers even though the code only requires counties to issue one marker to a veteran upon their death.

If a marker is damaged, the family just needs to bring that marker to the Veterans Affairs office, located in the administration building in Jim Thorpe, to receive a new one. That damaged marker can then be turned over to CCTI to be repaired through this project and put back into circulation when another damaged marker is received.

“This is a wonderful thing that the school is doing,” he said. “I appreciate what you are doing for the veterans of Carbon County.”

Dailey, Strohl and Ahner will be attending veteran organizations meetings in the upcoming weeks to announce their project.

Materials that the students need and use for the project are 1 foot long by 1 inch wide by a ½ inch thick aluminum or brass square stock, and 25 inch long by 3/8 inch diameter brass round stock and can be donated by contacting Kuehner at 570-325-3682, ext. 1217.

If you have a damaged veteran flag marker and would like it to be repaired, requests can be made by calling Kuehner at the aforementioned number.