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Program benefits cemeteries, honors veterans

Muskogee Phoenix - 11/28/2019

Nov. 27--Organizers of an event that recognizes youngsters who volunteer to clean up local cemeteries where war heroes are buried drew inspiration from those who baked the first Girl Scout Cookies 102 years ago in Muskogee.

American Legion Post 15 Historian Paul McKinstry and State Chaplain Stephen Ezell also have ambitions for their annual Heroes and Hot Dogs Picnic, hoping one day similar cemetery picnics will take place across the country. The event recognizes youth who take time to maintain the grave sites of war heroes while learning a little bit about their histories.

"We figure those young people helped this city save over $10,000 cleaning up those two cemeteries -- that's what it's all about," McKinstry said, referencing events at Greenhill and Booker T. Washington cemeteries. "We want to get young people involved with the history of these people."

McKinstry said the event has grown during its first two years and has attracted attention from others who have an interest in staging similar events at other locations. He and Ezell, who presented commemorative tiles made at Dal-Tile to the Muskogee City Council this week in support of the event, said he would like to see the popularity of the Heroes and Hot Dogs Picnic become as widespread as Girl Scout Cookies.

"Who would have thought those young ladies then would even think they would become an international phenomenon," McKinstry said about the popular cookies that are sold annually by the youth association. "One hundred years ago in teeny-town Muskogee, Oklahoma, women couldn't even vote, but whatever it took for those girls to make those cookies a success, that's what kept us going -- if they did it, we could do it."

Ezell said the third annual event scheduled in 2020 will acknowledge the contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers, African American soldiers who served primarily on the Western frontier during the years that followed the Civil War. That event will take place at the Fort Gibson Historic Site.

Ezell said the second annual event recognized the Tuskegee Airmen during an event at Booker T. Washington Cemetery, where three of the six airmen from Oklahoma are buried. The inaugural event at Greenhill Cemetery was dedicated to the World War I Doughboys.

"There are other Legion posts that want to take this event home to help clean and preserve cemeteries in their areas," Ezell said. "This program has worked to save Muskogee High School Junior ROTC, which several months ago was in danger of shutting down. They were able to double their cadet strength and just passed recent unit inspection with the highest marks possible."

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