PHOTO BY BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Fifth grade students from Myers Elementary School in Muncy gather around the grave site of Roland Ritter, a famous pilot who was one of the first Americans killed during World War I.

MUNCY – Fifth grade students from Myers Elementary School in Muncy visited the Muncy Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon, May 20th where they placed over 1,000 flags on the grave sites of all the veterans.

The students have been doing this tradition for the past 15 years, according to one of their instructors, Christina Geiger. “It makes a nice connection for the kids,” she said.

This year there were about 12 students among the 90 students who went and who were able to place a flag on a relative’s grave.

Lance Guiney said he enjoyed the field trip and was able to tell which grave sites were veterans because of the special bronze markers fixed with the graves that depict which war they served in for military service.

Loudon Boring said he placed a flag on his great grandfather’s grave, John Applegate who served in World War II from 1941 to 1945.

PHOTO BY BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Students from Muncy take a moment to reflect on some of the graves as they placed flags on veterans' grave sites in the Muncy Cemetery, Wednesday afternoon, May 20.

Overall, it is a great learning experience according to Bill Poulton from the Muncy Historical Society, and always present the flags to the students to place when they arrive at the cemetery. They learned about well known residents such as Margaret Waldron, Roland Ritter and John Bruch.