Scout Hopes To Help Fill Elwood Veterans Cemetery With Flags

ELWOOD, IL — Finn Rafferty remembers the trips and conversations well, times well spent between a young boy and his grandfather.

The outings to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood began when Rafferty was 5, when he and his grandfather, Terry Martin, traveled to the resting place where four of Rafferty’s relatives are now buried after serving their country as members of the United States military.
Now, Rafferty is building on those experiences with his grandfather —who died a couple of years ago and is now buried at Abraham Lincoln along with Rafferty’s great-grandfather Bill Martin, his great uncles Bob Plett and George Martin —and using his passion for remembering veterans to reach another goal.

Rafferty, a 15-year-old Carl Sandburg High School sophomore member of Boy Scout Troop 318 in Orland Park, will host a fundraiser on Friday to help collect funds for an Eagle Scout project. The project involves the mass production of a flag-placing tool that will make placing miniature American flags in front of the grave markers of veterans buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

The goal is to have the tools ready before Memorial Day when volunteers will place 62,000 flags in front of the graves of veterans in the cemetery. The tool is a replica of a similar device that has been in Rafferty’s family for years. It makes placing the flags into the ground easier at a time of year when the ground can still be hard from a cold winter.

Rafferty is hoping that this Friday’s event — a bowling party from 7-9 p.m. at Thunderbowl in Mokena — will help to raise the needed $1,200 that will allow Rafferty and other scouts to mass produce 100 of the tools that will then be donated to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery ahead of the next Flags In Day.
Tickets are $35 and all proceeds from the event will go toward Rafferty’s $1,200 goal with any extra money being donated to the Wreaths Across America initiative.

“I think it’s a great way to honor our veterans for all they do to serve our country,” Rafferty told Patch on Tuesday. “It’s a way to give back.”

For years now, Rafferty has participated in the Flags In event, which takes place the Friday before Memorial Day as well as the Wreaths Across America, which places holiday wreaths at the gravesites of veterans around Christmas. Because his family has a long history of military service, Rafferty has been taught to honor those who serve the United States, which he has continued to do throughout his young life.

That has continued into his time with the Scouts — an experience that is more about “just camping out in the wilderness”, he said, but that has taught him valuable life skills that he uses regularly. Now, in pursuit of the prestigious Eagle Scout honor, Rafferty is combining his love of scouting with his passion for helping veterans in a very visible way.
The Eagle Scout, in Rafferty’s mind, represents the “best of the best”, which has added even more motivation for him to reach his goal of raising enough money to get more American flags in the ground at the national cemetery.

Since beginning the project in May, Rafferty says he has devoted several hours each week working on the planning stages of how to create the flag-placing tool in mass quantities. He says that when Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery is filled to capacity, there will be room for 400,000 veterans to be buried there.

“Through scouting, we’re taught to be very respectful and to honor people who have given sacrifices,” Rafferty said.
The passion for veterans which Rafferty credits to the stories he heard from his grandfather and those trips placing flags in the cemetery has only deepened as the years have gone on, he said.

The trips to the cemetery with Martin not only served as a bonding experience between Rafferty and his grandfather but also provided him with a meaningful example of what service looks like.
“It’s a reminder of how many people laid down their lives for our country,” Rafferty told Patch. “You can’t not feel the connection because there are so many (veterans there).

“So (the project) means a lot to me because all (veterans) have sacrificed, and I feel like this is the least I can do just to honor them.”

The inspiration for his Eagle Scout project came a couple of years ago when Rafferty noticed how many people were having difficulty placing flags into the ground at the cemetery. Because of the hardness of the ground, the flags were either snapping or would not stay in place.

That’s when Rafferty decided he could be part of the solution. The tool is made from a four-foot piece of conduit with a handle and a rebar (reinforcement bar) poker, which makes the process of making holes in the ground for flags to be placed into and displayed much easier.

Even before Friday’s bowling event, Rafferty says he has gotten a lot of support not only from friends, family, and fellow scouts but also from the Orland Park community. He has had meaningful conversations with the foreman and director at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, where his tools will be used to help mark the gravesites of veterans with the flags.

He says that at a time when there is so much divisiveness in the country, especially along political lines, having a project that has brought people together rather than apart has been meaningful.
“It’s like everyone is coming together for one cause,” Rafferty said. “It’s really nice to get support from people I don’t necessarily even know.”

He added: “For me, it shows that no matter what, we are all still one country and we can all rally around our veterans. We can all understand the sacrifices that they make.”

Through his efforts, Rafferty hopes not only to earn the Eagle Scout honor but to continue a family legacy of remembering and paying honor to those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country. He says that his family’s connection to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery is deep, which makes him think that he is honoring not only veterans who are buried there but also his family members who mean so much to him and his loved ones.

“I think they’d be proud,” Rafferty said.