GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – This weekend honors those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, and the numerous volunteers who showed up at the veterans cemetery in northeast Grand Rapids on Wednesday night took that sacrifice to heart.

Community volunteers spread out across the 12-acre cemetery and planted more than 5,400 American flags at the gravesites of veterans. The cemetery off Monroe Avenue NE is next to Michigan Veteran Homes at Grand Rapids.

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Organizers said it took volunteers 30 minutes to plant all the flags.

The event concluded with a final salute and a performance of Taps.