OXFORD — America’s fallen heroes will be remembered on Memorial Day but new volunteers are needed to make sure they are honored every year, according to officials from the Anderson-Staples American Legion Post 112.

Each year, Boy Scouts from Oxford team up with Legionnaires from Anderson-Staples Post 112 to make sure all veterans graves in Oxford are decorated with an American flag. The Legion and Scouts take on this service project for the town but more help is needed to ensure that all veterans’ graves are decorated.

Last year, more than 350 veterans’ gravestones, some dating back to the Revolutionary War, scattered in about 18 public and private cemeteries in town were decorated for Memorial Day. Some of the graves are simply a rock on the ground placed in a 200-year-old cemetery or in remote places. One is a stone about half a mile in the woods off King Street in thick brush.

Robert Lavertu of Anderson-Staples Post 112 said last year that he believes the oldest veteran’s stone in Oxford may predate the Revolutionary War.

Town Manager Michael Chammings has said that under state law, municipalities have the responsibility to access and maintain any cemetery with a veteran’s grave in it, whether it is on public or private property. Each municipality must also decorate the graves of veterans each year on Memorial Day with an American flag and appropriate flag holder.

Organizers hope that new volunteers will come forward to help with the flag decoration of graves in the future.

Anyone who would like more information or would be willing to help this year or in future years should call Legionnaire Joe Bernard at 539-4505 or contact one of the Boy Scouts in Troop 196.

ldixon@sunjournal.com