Members of the Ladies Auxiliary of R.W. Fritzinger Post 7215 spent some time sprucing up the Walnutport veterans memorial in preparation for the holiday on Saturday.

“Today is our 16th annual Memorial Day service, where we decorate the monument and hold a little service for those who served and those who never came back,” Karen Bandzi, president of the Ladies Auxiliary, said.

Bandzi, along with Auxiliary Senior Vice President Michele Minnich, chaplain Susan Bortz, Auxiliary member Donna Seiler and VFW Post Commander Carl Ellis, affixed flag ribbons to trees and planted flags and wreaths around the memorial in the small park between Washington Street and 5th Street,

“The purpose of our decorating the monument today is for the Americanism Program and the Veterans and Family Support Program at the VFW Auxiliary,” Bandzi said.

Following the decoration, Bandzi and Ellis lowered the American and POW/MIA flags from the pole located behind the memorial and replaced them.

Ellis, Bandzi and Minnich took the time to carefully fold the American flag into a triangle. It will be stored until it can be properly disposed at a flag burning ceremony.

Bortz offered an opening prayer as everyone gathered around the memorial.

“Comrades of the post, brothers and sisters of the Auxiliary and friends, we are gathered here at this time to pay tribute to the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice, or to the memory of a departed brother or sister,” she said.

Bortz proceeded to ask Bandzi what message she had to offer.

“I have a message of hope that should inspire us at this solemn moment and all through life. The message is, our god, who says, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” Bandzi said.

The wreaths, Bandzi said, served as a tribute to those who laid down their lives for their God, country and flag.

Ellis, looking upon the memorial, said that the ceremony touched him and reminded him of his fellow soldiers that served and protected the nation at the ultimate cost.

“It brings mind the comrades you served with, and the ones that went to Vietnam and never came home. I particularly remember a few of them I graduated with, and a few members I knew over the years that didn’t come back. Today’s the day when there’s a special place for them in my heart,” he said.