Honoring Memorial Day in a Special Way, With a Flag Garden

Since 2010, hundreds of volunteers from the Massachusetts Military Heros Fund have created a Garden of Flags on Boston Common for Memorial Day weekend. The flags create a vista that is both touching and inspirational. It can also be emotionally overwhelming.

The Military Heros Fund is now part of the HomeBase family. HomeBase is a national service agency of excellence. It’s dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of war for Veterans, Service Members and Military Families of the Fallen of all eras, regardless of geographical location, and  at no cost to them.

The program founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Red Sox provides critical mental healthcare as well as financial assistance, advocacy and benefits navigation. ( For more information visit https://homebase.org )

The Flag Garden is an annual temporary installation of 37,000+ flags placed in front of Boston Common’s Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Each flag represents a brave Massachusetts Service Member who gave his or her life defending our Country since the Revolutionary War.

Decorated combat Veteran, U.S. Army, Brigadier General Jack Hammond ( ret), is the CEO of HomeBase. General Hammond, with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and others presided over a solemn ceremony that included the reading of each lost Service Member’s name.

Some of those names were read by Gold Star Mother’s, others were read by friends and relatives. Many of the Flags were installed by loved ones of the Fallen including some of their children.

 

The symbolic Garden is a moving tribute to the greater meaning of Memorial Day. It’s a powerful visual reminder to those left behind; Massachusetts communities support  Families of Fallen Heros and that their sacrifice will remain a meaningful part of our Common-wealth.

The Flag Garden installation will remain in front of the Soldier’s and Sailors Monument until Wednesday 5/29/24.

The Flag Garden “retirement” team is seeking volunteers. Organizers working with the City of Boston need help retrieving the 37,000 installed Flags.

Anyone interested in volunteering is asked to meet at the display on the Common immediately adjacent to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, near Charles and Beacon Streets at 12:00 p.m.

**** Headline photo: Brigadier General Jack Hammond of HomeBase, at the Flag Garden installation ceremony in the Boston Common adjacent to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument