Outdoor 22, American Legion Post 13, and Mt. Hope Cemetery to host Memorial Day Ceremonies

With Memorial Day quickly approaching, Charlie 22 Outdoors is collaborating with Mountain Hope Cemetery and American Legion Post 13 to hold Memorial Day Ceremonies.

The Memorial Day Ceremonies held at Mountain Hope Cemetery in conjunction with Outdoor 22 and American Legion Post 13 are going to prove local veterans and the community a special event.

“We’re proud to say we’re going to be able to intern the ashes of a veteran from Joplin who passed away in 2011, who is unfortunate to say this, but he’s been in a bag on a shelf that long because he was unclaimed,” Outdoor 22 Executive Director Scotty Hettinger said. “And as we’ve done this, gone through this process, we’ve learned that across this country there are hard to say the exact number, but at one time it was several thousand veterans. Ashes were in bags on shelves because they were just unclaimed across this country.”

Last year, there were three or four veteran ashes that were unclaimed from the area that did end up having families, who were unaware of their existence, claim them.

However, one still remains.

“So, we have an urn that’s been built for them that we’re going to put them in and we’ll have an honor guard there, presenting the colors from Web City ROTC,” Hettinger said. “The (American) Legion will be there. They’ll do the fire,  the three-gun volley and the flag folding. Then (Mayor) Ragsdale is the Master of Ceremonies.” 

The Memorial Day Ceremonies will be held at 10 a.m. at the open air pavilion at Mount Hope Cemetery at the northern portion of the cemetery.