KAPAIA — While traditionally the day is set aside to remember fallen soldiers, Memorial Day this year carried special meaning for a family and friends who lost a boy too young to be a soldier. “He came to me when
KAPAIA — While traditionally the day is set aside to remember fallen soldiers, Memorial Day this year carried special meaning for a family and friends who lost a boy too young to be a soldier.
“He came to me when he was only a Tiger,” Cubmaster Kathleen Langtad said. “Marc was a Scout, and he did this with us every year.”
“Marc” was Marc Cagdan, a 16-year-old Kaua‘i High School student who died in a single-vehicle accident early in the morning after attending the prom.
What he did was what scouts across the island and across the country do around Memorial Day, that is clean gravesites and place flowers of flags on them to remember those who have died.
This year, the project took on special meaning to the small gathering of scouts, leaders, and parent volunteers, as they each stopped off at a grave to each place a flower there before one of the scouts offered a short prayer.
That grave at Kaua‘i Memorial Gardens in Kapaia belongs to Cagdan, who was killed only a few miles up Ma‘alo Road from where he is buried.
Like the morning sun that seared through the vestiges of a sprinkle Saturday, adults could not help but feel a sense of goodness and warmth surge through their hearts as they watched the dozen Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts work their way through the cemetery, stopping only briefly to place one of their Good Turn Project blooms on grave sites.
The boys from Immaculate Conception Church Boy Scout Pack 168 start in January making the flowers, nearly 4,000 in all this year.
“People like what the boys do,” Langtad said. “They stop them and say ‘thank you,’ and some even offer to pay them.”
The project started about 20 years ago, Langtad explained. “At first we started using fresh flowers, but after Hurricane ‘Iniki there were no flowers around, so we started creating flowers.”
Langtad said the troop and pack are sponsored by Immaculate Conception Church, and as a way of repaying them, the scouts started decorating the graveyard in back of the church.
But, there were always extra flowers, Langtad said, so the project just naturally expanded, first to the Kapaia Immaculate Conception Church Cemetery, and then up to the neighboring Kaua‘i Memorial Gardens, the Lihu‘e Cemetery, and to Kalapaki Bay Memorial Gardens.
This year, the volunteer corps also visited the Lihu‘e Lutheran cemetery.
Starting as early as January, the scouts and their parents created 3,700 flowers from plastic sheeting, floral tape, and skewers, for placement at grave sites around Lihu‘e.
“At first it was crepe paper,” Langtad said. “But, they don’t last that long — especially if it rains. So, we found that we could use plastic tablecloths. That way, we have different colors every year, this year being a combination of lavender and purple.”
Attached to each stem is a tiny tag designating the bloom as a Good Turn Project for the troop and pack, which leads people to stop the scouts to thank them for their thoughtfulness.
As adults replenished the supply of flowers to the scouts, Langtad watched the group sweep through the cemetery, and said, “It’s too bad we come to visit Marc instead of having him joining us.”
While she spoke, the tender hands of Tiger Cub Scout Brandon Asuncion placed a solitary purple and lavender flower on one of the graves that would otherwise have gone undecorated on Memorial Day.
Out at Hanapepe, at the Kauai Veteran’s Cemetery, another scene played out over this Memorial Day weekend.
“I don’t know anyone (buried) here, but this is a place you need to be,” said Jim, a New Yorker who recently moved to Kaua‘i, as he watched the final cleanup by Boy Scouts who had earlier washed and scrubbed the grave markers at the cemetery in preparation for the Sunday service hosted by the Kaua‘i Marine Corps League.
“I’ll be back for the service,” he promised. “I’ll spend some time here, and find someone to give a hug to.”
He was true to his word, and showed up for yesterday’s services, and found someone who needed a hug.
Memorial Day activities took place starting Friday, as CJ Nakashita, a vendor at Star Market and Wal-Mart, noticed that a lot of people were buying floral arrangements, “probably for the graveyards.”
Staff Writer Dennis Fujimoto may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
