Honoring the Spirit of Memorial Day at Your Facility

Memorial Day is just around the corner on Monday, May 31. It's always held on the last Monday of May and honors the men and women who lost their lives in military service. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, at last count there were 9,301,560 veterans in the age range of 65 to 90+, many of whom call long-term care facilities home.

Here are a few simple ways to make Memorial Day special at your facility:

• If you have a flag at your facility, it should be flown at half-staff only from sunrise until noon, and then raised in honor of the United States' battle heroes.


• In 2000, Congress passed The National Moment of Remembrance Act, which the president signed into law. It encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to honor those who died serving the nation.


• Make a donation to the VFW for poppies for your residents and encourage them to wear them proudly on Memorial Day. Did you ever wonder how the poppy came to be associated with Memorial Day? According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, two women were immensely moved by the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, which references poppies growing in between the graves of fallen soldiers. The women then started selling artificial poppies to help orphans and other people left destitute by war. In 1922, the VFW conducted their first nationwide poppy distribution. Since then, the "Buddy Poppy" program has raised millions of dollars to support veterans and their dependents. The poppies are assembled by disabled and needy veterans.