Levi Velting kneels beside the gravestone of Carl Meitz, a friend of the family. The Velting family has known the Meitz family for 40 years, and thought it would be appropriate to honor him in a photo to be turned in for Levi’s Eagle Scout project.

Cemeteries are a place a lot of kids don’t want to visit. But they don’t bother Levi Velting, a 15-year-old sophomore at Cedar Springs High School. He spent a lot of time with his family doing geneaology in cemeteries across the county while growing up, and so it was only appropriate that he do his Eagle Scout project in a cemetery where he could honor fallen soldiers.

“It has been a joke at our house that he and his brother learned their ABCs in the cemetery looking for gravestones,” said Levi’s mom, Stacey Velting.

On August 22, Levi and 13 other Boy Scouts and their parents set out to East Nelson Township Cemetery to help Levi on his eagle project, which was making foundations for the veteran flag holders. They put 63 combined work hours into digging holes and cementing the flag holders in place. With the extra materials they also made foundations for the holders at Punches Cemetery on Ritchie.

Levi’s father, Brien, is a Gulf War Veteran, and hopes that when his time comes, his grave will be honored in the same way.

Levi and and the scouts took the Memorial Day issue of the Cedar Springs Post with the listing of all the veterans buried in the cemeteries, and checked to make sure they found all the names. There were a few they couldn’t find, and a few they said we need to add. We’ll be checking on this in the near future. Thanks so much for doing this!