SOUTH DEERFIELD — The gravestones of veterans received some extra attention from students this week ahead of the community’s annual Memorial Day ceremonies.

Frontier Regional School’s National Honor Society students joined the Hale-Clapp Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3295 at the Brookside, Holy Name of Jesus and Holy Family cemeteries on Wednesday to honor the town’s veterans by placing flags on their graves. In total, the students placed 772 flags in the cemeteries, Deerfield Academy students put 120 in Old Deerfield and the Frontier baseball team spruced up veterans’ street signs around town.

VFW Post 3295 Commander Rachael Otto, whose military roots run deep with her grandfather, mother and stepfather all serving, said bringing students together with the veterans is a chance for them to see the importance of Memorial Day in action.

“This is how we ensure that the next generation understands what Memorial Day stands for. … Civics isn’t taught the way it used to be, so this is great to be able to make sure they are getting a piece of local history. These could be their grandparents, their aunts, their uncles. They may not have known their military legacy and history, and to put eyes and hands on this, it’s pretty awesome,” Otto said. “I’m a broken record, but [Memorial Day is about] allowing the future generations to take a moment and reflect and remember where our freedoms came from.”

The flag distribution has become a long-running intergenerational tradition in Deerfield, as Frontier students, veterans and the Memorial Day Committee have distributed flags for more than a dozen years, according to committee member Fred Beckta.

Beckta said the annual tradition is an opportunity for the students to learn more about the town’s military history while doing something positive for the community.

“It’s important because not only are they helping the community, but it’s important they remember the veterans in these cemeteries,” Beckta said, adding that 24 veterans in the town’s history were killed in action. “Freedom is not free.”

When speaking to the students, he noted his father served in World War II by sneaking into the service at the age of 16 — around the age of the teens who placed the flags on Wednesday.

“You’re able to do what you want to do because of these people,” Beckta said. “So, again, honor these people. There are a lot of veterans buried here. We’re honoring all of them, not just the ones that were killed in action.

As they were planting flags, Frontier juniors Taylor Krusiewski, Amalia Smith and Madelyn Antes said it was an opportunity to consider the service Deerfield’s veterans have given and thank them for the freedoms they have.

“It is a day to remember everyone that got us to where we are now,” Krusiewski said. “It’s really cool all these people from our town have served.”

“It is important to be able to remember and honor them for what they did for us,” Smith added.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.