IRON MOUNTAIN — About 200 area students gathered Monday to honor veterans in Cemetery Park in Iron Mountain.

Fifth-grade students from Iron Mountain Central Middle School and Kingsford Middle School placed more than 2,300 American flags at the base of local veteran gravesites in preparation for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

The service project is one that North Elementary School Principal Andy Mendini, himself a veteran, says he holds close to his heart.

“I can remember when we first started helping many years ago that there was a core group of veterans from the American Legion that took care of placing the flags and as the group got older it was harder to do,” Mendini said. “So we kind of took over the project with the students and look forward to it every year.”

Mendini began the tradition in 2003, when he was a fifth-grade teacher at Central Elementary School, to help assist members from American Legion Post 50. About a week before Memorial Day, the fifth-grade classes from both schools come together at Cemetery Park for an activity that teaches lessons of respect, community and philanthropy.