Memorial Day Services And Events Scheduled In Lake Elsinore, Wildomar Throughout The Long Weekend

Local services are being held in Lake Elsinore and Wildomar to honor men and women who have died while serving their country.

Elsinore Valley Cemetery will hold its VFW Post 1508 and American Legion Post 200-sponsored community service beginning at 10 a.m., Monday, May 27. The service will include skydivers and a missing man flyover, a 21-gun salute by the Semper Fi Honor Detail, guest soloist Robbie Britt, patriotic music by the Temecula Valley Winds, along with speeches from community members and leaders.

The cemetery is located at 18170 Collier Avenue, and additional parking along with a shuttle bus will be available at the nearby Home Depot.

Wildomar will also hold a 10 a.m. service Monday at the Wildomar Cemetery located at 21400 Palomar Street. The annual service led by the city's Faith Baptist Church will feature local dignitaries and service members. 

To ready for the Wildomar service, volunteers and local scouts from Pack 332, Troop 332, Troop 2011, Crew 604, and GSSGC Girl Scouts turned out May 18 to clean headstones at the cemetery.

The Lake Elsinore Storm is also holding a "Red, White and Blue Weekend" at The Diamond this weekend. Events include special promos during the Storm’s series at home against the Modesto Nuts.

On Monday there will also be 5K and 10K races at the levee beginning at 8:30 a.m. as part of the Storm's events. Parking is available at The Diamond located at  500 Diamond Drive. The race cost is $30 in advance and $40 on race day, with lower prices for senior citizens, children under 12 and military personnel. The race entry fee entitles participants to a commemorative baseball and a ticket to a future Storm game, according to the promoter's website.

Visit www.stormentertainmentonline.com for more information.

Additionally, the final resting places of more than 50,000 U.S. military veterans are expected to have the Stars and Stripes flying alongside them this weekend when volunteers fan out across Riverside National Cemetery to set miniature flags at each grave site Saturday. 

For the second consecutive year, the Cypress-based nonprofit Honoring Our Fallen is planning a flag-placement walk throughout the cemetery grounds to ensure at least one-third of the roughly 180,000 occupied plots have a flag. 

"The sheer size of the cemetery makes it virtually impossible for the cemetery to fund such a program," said Honoring Our Fallen founder Laura Herzog. "Sadly, (many) grave sites are left empty each year." 

Herzog was made aware of a dearth of flags at the cemetery by a U.S. Air Force veteran -- now Anaheim police officer -- Brennan Leininger, who visited the hallowed grounds during Memorial Day weekend 2011 and was taken aback by how few flags were flying. 


"Some of the men and women buried there don't have any family members left," Herzog said. 

Through donations to Honoring Our Fallen, enough flags were purchased to cover a little over 55,000 grave sites.

The all-volunteer effort will get underway at 9 a.m. and continue into the early afternoon. 

"We will have between 300 and 500 people donating their time, including (fallen service members') families, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, police explorers and members of many veterans' groups," Herzog said. She said any and all help is welcome.

Volunteers will meet at the cemetery's Veterans Memorial Ampitheater for a short briefing before deploying throughout portions of the 900-acre property. 

According to Herzog, of all the states, California has the highest number of veterans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan -- 712 to date. Donations for flag purchases can be made at http://www.honoringourfallen.org. --City News Service contributed to this report.