BELMONT — The Concentrated Conduct Adjustment Program and Crossfit for Change students helped American Legion Post 312 place American flags at military grave sites across Belmont County to honor deceased veterans as Memorial Day approaches.

The Belmont County Juvenile Court C-CAP/community service and the Crossfit for Change program joined the Tri-State Military Veterans Museum and American Legion Post 312 in a collaborative effort to honor deceased veterans by placing American flags on their graves.

Students and veterans placed more than 700 flags across six cemeteries in Belmont County, including cemeteries at Belmont, Morristown, Centerville, Chapel Hill, Chestnut Level and Jacobsburg.

Volunteers first met at the museum and then dispersed to the cemeteries.

Members of the American Legion place flags every year, but C-CAP and Crossfit for Change students joined them for the first time last year.

Legion post Commander Terry Puperi said the members of the legion have a hard time walking around because they’re older, so having the students come is a great help for them. The veterans will go back with the students and pick up the flags from the cemeteries in September before winter arrives.

“It’s more like an honor for us to go and honor the veterans who passed before us,” Puperi said.

As a veteran, individuals create a brotherhood no matter what branch they’re in, Puperi said, so it’s important to honor the ones who have died before them.

“That’s when you know that you have a brotherhood,” he said. “Someone relies

on you. I don’t care if they’re a Marine or a Navy guy or an Army guy or an Air Force or Coast Guard or whoever. These veterans have fought just as hard as we did. These veterans have given their lives.”

C-CAP director Noah Atkinson said the program teamed up with the American Legion to provide a community service opportunity for the students that is meaningful.

“We thought, ‘What a better way to help out the veterans?'” he said. “They’re good to us. They are willing to bring kids that are on probation and need community service. I want to team up with them, walk them around and provide a learning lesson for them.”

C-CAP is a program for at-risk youth to get a second chance instead of going to Sargus Juvenile Detention Center, Atkinson said. The program gives students the opportunity to get programming for life skills, community service and to have a little extra push in the right direction.

CrossFit for Change is a workout program with five probation officers who exercise with the students at Ohio Valley CrossFit and at the Ohio Valley Mall. Atkinson said it allows them a chance to kind of let off some steam, have a positive influence on each other and get better physically and mentally.

It was important to bring the students to place the flags for veterans because it helps them to understand the history and meaning of why they might see a flag on the grave site, Atkinson said.

He wanted the students to understand the sacrifice that veterans made as they laid their life on the line for their country and for freedom. He also wanted them to see when they make a bad decision what’s at stake, because if someone goes to the detention center, their freedoms are gone, and they don’t get to do whatever they want to do.

“I think that gives them a learning lesson and more of a respect of what the veterans did for us when they fought in the war and the freedoms that we have,” Atkinson said. “Hopefully they can appreciate that a little bit more, and when they go to make a poor decision, hopefully they can think about the sacrifice people put out there for them and learn from it.”