WESTBROOK – Memorial Day is perhaps the one day a year when the public turns its attention to the simple iron stars mounted by certain graves in local cemeteries, adorned with American flags.

Teachers at Westbrook Middle School and Deputy Public Services Director Arty Ledoux hope that a two-day event this week in preparation for Memorial Day will help some local students understand the meaning of those simple markers and their flags.

On Monday, as part of what is becoming an annual tradition, about 35 middle school students listened to a presentation by Ledoux, who himself served as a U.S. Marine, about grave markers and their significance for veterans and their families.

Then, on Tuesday, the students took to Woodlawn Cemetery, nearly across the street from the school on Stroudwater Street, to attend to markers that had been bent, fallen over or placed in the wrong position.

John Douphinett, a sixth-grade math and science teacher at the school, said for many years he has been encouraging groups of students to take part once a year in some sort of community service project.

“It’s important for the kids to realize they’re part of something,” he said.

Starting last year, just after students moved to the new Stroudwater Street building, Douphinett said he reached out to Ledoux to ask if there was something the kids could do at the cemetery.

“When we moved up here, it was a perfect fit,” Douphinett said.

Ledoux was joined on Monday by local resident Kim Carignan. Her father, Stanley W. Casey Jr., served with the U.S. Marines from 1946-1948, in an engineering battalion called the “China Marines,” which worked to repair damage done during the war. He died in January at age 81, and Ledoux said his grave marker is being honored with a plaque commemorating his service.

Ledoux told the students to think about Carignan and all the other families of veterans who will appreciate someone taking care of the markers.

“When you go up there and you straighten these flags, these are for real people,” he said.

Carignan said she suspected her father would be happy to see the kids involved, too.

“He loved kids, and he’d be very happy to know you’re doing this,” she said. “I think he’s going to be watching and smiling.”

On Tuesday, the sun broke through the clouds just as the children entered the cemetery. They spent about an hour working their way up and down the rows, straightening, moving, and adding flags to markers for veterans buried throughout the property. At the end, they collected around Casey’s grave, together with members of Carignan’s family.

Colby Dame, 11, inserted the rod holding the star in the proper place – the top-right corner of the gravestone – and said he saw what he and his classmates were doing as a sign of respect.

“It’s nice that we’re fixing them,” he said of the bent and misplaced markers.

Alexandria Cobb, 11, finished off Casey’s marker by inserting a new American flag behind the star.

“It’s an honor to do it,” she said.

Carignan said she hoped involving her father’s grave in the event this year made the message to the kids even more meaningful.

“I think it drove it deeper,” she said.

Douphinett, whose father, Dr. Otis Douphinett, served for 20 years as a U.S. Army medic, including during World War II, said he liked how the project draws attention not just to the community outside the school walls, but to history itself.

“They’re beginning to understand a piece of history, and this is where a lot of Westbrook’s history is,” he said.