Our Story

Two days before Memorial Day 2015, Joanne Malmstedt learned that Fort Snelling no longer had the ability to place flags on the graves of the Veterans laid to rest at their cemetery. Calling friends and family into action, a movement began to try to collect as many flags as they could. Falling quite short of the 180,000 flags needed to blanket the cemetery, the volunteers were still proud to still have placed over 3,000 flags in such short notice.

Today, the effort continues and is growing. We still will not have enough flags to blanket the entire cemetery this year, but with your continued support and attention, we can get there! Our most dire need at this point is funding, so please keep the individual and corporate donations coming. We cannot express how much we appreciate your help!

Our Mission

Flags for Fort Snelling was born with the mission to continue the tradition of honoring our Veterans on Memorial Day by placing flags at their headstones. The Fort Snelling National Cemetery is operated by the Veterans Administration with a limited number of civilian staff, thus do not have the funding or assistance to provide a flag for almost 200,000 graves. This is where we step in. We work to collect donations for the funding of the American Flags, and then organize volunteers to distribute the flags on Memorial Day. As an added effort to keep the public’s interest in our mission, we offer the opportunity for those to request a special recognition for their loved one if they cannot personally make it to the cemetery. We collect their loved one’s names, and provide a photo of the flag we place in their honor.

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Flags for Fort Snelling

Flags for Fort Snelling

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