Powell’s American Legion post is inviting the community to honor and remember the country’s fallen veterans with a series of Memorial Day events.

On Monday, May 31, members of Hughes-Pittinger Post 26 will mark the avenues of Crown Hill Cemetery with American flags donated by veterans.

Breakfast will be served at the Legion Hall, 143 S. Clark St., from 7-9 a.m. The cost is $5, but the meal is free for those who assisted in placing the Avenue of Flags.

Then at 9:30 a.m. at Crown Hill Cemetery east of Powell, the post’s honor guard will conduct its annual Memorial Day ceremony, which includes a prayer and a 21-gun salute.

“We hope to see you at the event honoring our nation’s veterans,” said Post Commander Russell Stafford.

Following the ceremony, the Legion Auxiliary will lay wreaths at the Powell Wall of Honor, just outside the hall; the wall contains the names of nearly all of the Powell area veterans who have served in the U.S. military. If the weather is poor, the wreath-laying will be moved inside.

Although it didn’t become an official federal holiday until 1971, Memorial Day has been observed since the 1800s.

In a declaration issued in May 1868 — three years after the end of the Civil War — Maj. Gen. John A. Logan called on Americans to take flowers and decorate the graves of those who died in the conflict.

“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance,” Logan wrote, adding, “Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

Before the Memorial Day ceremony, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 27, the Legion, the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 26 and local Boy Scouts will place memorial flags on the headstones and markers of all the veterans interred at Crown Hill Cemetery.

Volunteers are welcome and needed for the events. To assist, or for more information, contact Stafford at 706-830-4648 or Post Adjutant Ed Morrow at 714-397-5343 or email americanlegionposg26@gmail.com.