Feel Good Friday - Memorial Day Flowers Foundation

Happy almost Memorial Day! Many of you are looking forward to a three-day weekend and a chance to get together with family and friends - I know I am. Since this is also Feel Good Friday, I want to call attention to an organization that focuses on remembering our veterans, The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation.

As they explain on their website, "The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation works with families, organizations, and businesses to make floral tributes to those who bravely served our country." The process is simple. Individuals and corporations make donations to purchase flowers and then on Memorial Day weekend, "at designated cemeteries, volunteers place roses at headstones and hand out flowers to visitors and veterans."

There are 17 locations participating this year, including national cemeteries in Arlington, Houston and Jacksonville. You can watch last year's 300 volunteers at Arlington in action here. This year, the goal is to cover 160,000 of the 280,00 graves.

For those of you in the Bay Area, the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio is one of the participating locations. The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation provided 2,000 sponsored roses last year. In 2017 the coverage goal is 15,000 of the 25,000 veterans' graves. You can click this link to donate money or to volunteer (next year) to place flowers on the graves. It seems they've already got enough volunteers in SF this weekend!

To get on the list for 2018 and stay in the loop year round, like The Memorial Day Flowers Foundation Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @MemorialFlowers. Now go enjoy your weekend and barbecue something delicious!