Volunteers work to bring Memorial Day traditions back to Belle Vernon Cemetery

Thanks to the efforts of a group of volunteers, led by Donna Santoro, flags were placed on veterans’ graves and a Memorial Day service will be held at the Belle Vernon Cemetery.

By the MVI

Volunteers of all ages came together recently to place flags on veterans’ graves at Belle Vernon Cemetery. Submitted

On a recent chilly, rainy Saturday morning in early May, Donna Santoro looked out across the more than 3,000 veterans’ graves at Belle Vernon Cemetery and talked lovingly about her dad, Charles Mutich, a Navy veteran who died in 1995.

Her voice cracking with emotion, she spoke about how pleased he would be to see the nearly 60 volunteers – some young, some old and many in between – who gathered that day to continue the tradition that he and a cadre of other veterans began decades earlier of placing American flags on the graves in advance of Memorial Day services at the cemetery.

But it was a tradition that almost ended with the passing of veterans such as Mutich who had faithfully tended to the graves of soldiers from the Civil and Spanish-American wars intermingled with those from two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the conflicts that followed.

Santoro would have none of that.

In 2024, Santoro, 74, of Belle Vernon, was heartbroken to learn that the annual Memorial Day ceremony that her dad and other members of American Legion Post 659 had planned for years at the cemetery would be canceled due to rain earlier in the day.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said, explaining how much the event meant to her dad, who served during World War II and the Korean Conflict in the Pacific and Greenland. “After a few minutes, I prayed to God and spoke to my dad in heaven and decided to put together a service.”

She called on a group of veterans’ sons and daughters who grew up in Belle Vernon, regularly attended American Legion events with their dads and walked the cemetery as children to carefully place flags on graves.

“Honoring our veterans was something that our dads instilled in us and we thought it should continue,” she said about the group that was determined to hold a Memorial Day service that year.

She said about 75 people gathered at the cemetery on Memorial Day 2024 for their service where she and her sister, Becky Mutich Moore, sang “God Bless America,” a local minister said a prayer and the honor roll of veterans buried at the cemetery was read.

“It was amazing to see the people turn out for this event that we had planned at the last minute,” she said. “It was beautiful.”

In 2025, she found that not only was the Memorial Day observance not happening, but not enough people were available to place the flags on the veterans’ graves.

Just about everyone told her it would be difficult to locate enough flags at the last minute to even think about taking on the project.

Undeterred, she reached out to the offices of state Rep. Eric Davanzo and U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, as well as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs offices in Greensburg and was able to round up thousands of flags.

She said the love her group had for their dads proved stronger than any roadblock placed before them.

“We knew we had to find those flags, we just had to,” she said.

One of those volunteers, Kathy Francia, speaks with pride about her late father, Albert H. Frank, an Army veteran who served in World War II in Europe and spent decades honoring veterans at every opportunity.

She said it was so difficult for him when his health prevented him from continuing his work with the veterans, but her family is determined to carry on in his memory.

Her story is similar to that of Elsa Sauritch, whose father, Milan “Teet” Franceschi, dedicated his life to veterans’ causes. Today, Sauritch’s entire family is heavily involved in keeping his mission alive.

This year, the number of volunteers helping with the flags grew dramatically as word spread about Santoro and her group, which was joined by volunteers from Boy Scout Troops 1561 and 1543, the Belle Vernon Middle School Football Team and the Mon-Yough River Valley Rotary Club to complete the job.

Santoro called the extra volunteers a “God wink” because God knew “we needed those extra hands to help.”

Some of the young volunteers spent time talking to their elders about the history of the various wars represented in the cemetery.

Don Giffin, 79, an Air Force veteran from Monessen who served in Vietnam, said he was proud to have his grandson, 13, and granddaughter, 15, helping him place flags on the graves.

“Seeing those grave markers was a lesson in history unlike any other that they’ve had in their lives,” said Giffin, a retired state trooper. “For me, it was an incredible honor to be there to pay tribute to my fellow veterans.”

Some volunteers were able to place flags on family members’ graves.

“I think that everyone who was there that day felt good about what they were doing.” said Rotary Club member Bernie Bandini, 65, of Dunlevy, who has several family members buried at the cemetery. “My dad was a veteran, and I was happy to do this in his memory.”

Santoro’s group has expanded its efforts to also place flags at St. Mary’s and Rehoboth cemeteries while the next generation is ensuring their work continues into the future.

Santoro’s daughter, Abby Rehula, 40, of New Eagle, was at her mother’s side placing flags on the veterans’ graves this month and her son, Adam, 44, will be the master of ceremonies at the Memorial Day service set for 9 a.m. on May 25.

Soon after that, planning will begin for next year.

“I do it for daddy. It’s the same for all the members of our group. My dad and their dads, I can’t stress how much each of them loved their country.”