A few days before Memorial Day, Joanne Malmstedt sat at a folding table in a parking lot at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, surrounded by trucks and supplies and volunteers, studying several maps in front of her like the leader of a military campaign.
In a way, she is the leader of a military campaign — or, one that honors veterans with military-like precision.
It was on Thursday that Malmstedt, the founder and president of Flags for Fort Snelling, was mapping out the waves of volunteers who come to the national cemetery every May to place U.S. flags on every grave for Memorial Day. This year, those volunteers will total approximately 3,700 to 4,700 people, all working to place (and, later, to remove) more than 190,000 flags at the graves over the span of several days.
For Malmstedt, the campaign — now in its 10th year — goes beyond a personal gesture of remembrance for the veterans in her own family, her father and her great grandfather, who are buried here.
“These men and women sacrificed so much,” says Malmstedt, 44, of Blaine. “I really want to make sure that sacrifice is not forgotten.”
While the nonprofit honors all who served our country — expanding the day of remembrance beyond those who died while serving — the origin of what we now call Memorial Day was meant to honor those who died in the Civil War.
Memorial Day
Flags for Fort Snelling founder and president Joanne Malmstedt at Fort Snelling National Cemetery on Saturday, May 24, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Fort Snelling National Cemetery, located near the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport International Airport on 34th Avenue, is the only national cemetery in Minnesota, a place to honor veterans (and their eligible family members) under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration. Minnesota’s national cemetery was formally dedicated almost 86 years ago, on July 14, 1939, according to the cemetery’s website.
Days before that dedication, on July 5, the first veteran was laid to rest there: His name is George H. Mallon, a Medal of Honor recipient who served as a captain in the U.S. Army during World War I. After his courage leading his men in battle in France in 1918, he was included in an American general’s list of 100 heroes of World War I. He returned home later, where he was active in Minnesota politics. He died at age 57.
Mallon’s grave is located near a large plaque displaying the Memorial Day Order of 1868, situated in a prominent spot near the cemetery’s main entrance.
In Order No. 11, John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic — a veterans’ organization — declared that a day in May should be dedicated to “decorating” the graves of the Civil War fallen.
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This day, the order commanded, should be “designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion and whose bodies now lie in every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit …
” … Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor …”
Later on, Decoration Day became known as Memorial Day, a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May, “an annual day of remembrance,” according to the National Archives, “to honor all those who have died in service to the United States during peace and war.”
Flags for Fort Snelling
Flags for Fort Snelling volunteer Gabrielle Wojdyla-Just of Minneapolis helps her dad, Ryan Just, place flags next to headstones at Fort Snelling National Cemetery on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Gabrielle’s mom is currently stationed overseas with the United States Navy. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
It was a decade ago, as Memorial Day 2015 approached, when a phone call to Fort Snelling National Cemetery led Malmstedt to be the change she wished to see in the world.
“I had called the cemetery to ask, ‘How do we volunteer to help put flags out?’” she recalls. “My kids were little at the time and I wanted to show them, ‘This is who Memorial Day is for’ because they weren’t understanding the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day.”
(Veterans Day, a federal holiday in November, honors military veterans.)
However, what she learned from that call surprised her.
“The person I talked to said, ‘We don’t do that anymore,’” she says.
That didn’t stop Malmstedt.
“I went on social media and was like, ‘I can’t believe the cemetery doesn’t do this — I’m still going out there so my kids can see what it’s for, if anybody wants to join me,’” she recalls. “And so I had about 12 friends and their kids come and help put out 3,700 of the tiny stick flags.”
Local news media, on site for Memorial Day, noticed the group at work.
“They asked us, ‘What are you guys doing?’” Malmstedt says. “We told them we were putting out flags and they asked, ‘Whose idea was this?’ One of my friends pointed to me and they came over and did the interview. The response we got from it was the same as mine: Nobody knew it wasn’t done. And then, a few days later, I got a call from the director of the cemetery, who asked for a meeting. I initially thought I was in trouble.”
She wasn’t.
“He thanked me immensely for what we did, because it brought to light the fact that it wasn’t done anymore,” she says.
She left the meeting feeling determined to revive the “decorating” tradition.
“That’s when I said, ‘I’m doing this, I’m going to make this happen,’” she said. “I laugh looking back, because at the time as a single mom of three little kids, I had no business taking this on. But now, this is our 10-year anniversary this year. Looking back, it’s like, ‘Wow.’ We’ve been making it happen and I really want to make sure we continue to make it happen.”
The people who work at Fort Snelling National Cemetery appreciate it.
“We all owe a debt of gratitude to Joanne Malmstedt and her team for volunteering to serve a greater good, while educating future generations on the importance of service and sacrifice,” said Marshall Murphy, deputy director of Fort Snelling National Cemetery, in a statement to the Pioneer Press.
“Fort Snelling National Cemetery has a rich history of honoring veterans on Memorial Day — including placing flags at every grave,” Murphy said. “Over time, the ever-increasing volume of work at the cemetery outpaced the cemetery staff’s ability to coordinate volunteers to assist with the transport, placement, retrieval, repair and storage of the flags each year. In 2015, Joanne saw an opportunity to serve veterans, her community and her country, and volunteered to lead this project.
“As the fifth busiest national cemetery coordinating 5,000+ interments per year and managing 193,000 existing gravesites, Fort Snelling National Cemetery is extremely grateful for support from volunteers like Joanne.”
Malmstedt hopes her story inspires others to do what her nonprofit has done.
“I would love to see other groups, other people, piggyback off this and be like, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re going to start doing this at other cemeteries,’” she says. “It would be nice if all those that are laid to rest are able to be honored and remembered, too.”
The community responds
Flags for Fort Snelling founder and president Joanne Malmstedt gives instructions to volunteers before they place flags next to headstones at Fort Snelling National Cemetery on Saturday, May 24, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Malmstedt, who also works as a mechanical adjuster for Federal Ammunition and owns a cleaning company, A Patriots Clean, says it requires a group effort to make Flags for Fort Snelling’s annual operation come together, from labor to donations.
On Thursday, volunteers were working in a parking lot at the cemetery, water sealing the wooden staffs of the flags to prevent mold growth.
They worked quickly, dipping flag bundles into buckets of clear wood sealer before placing the flags on tarps to dry in the sun.
It was volunteer work they said they felt privileged to do.
“We have multiple family members buried here,” said volunteer Tina Friedel of Osceola, Wis. “It’s just a little way to give something back.”
Nearby, Jill Cooper and her partner, Barry Gustafson, were breaking down boxes and doing other tasks needed on this preparation day. The Minneapolis couple serves in the core group every year, directing and helping other volunteers in this regimented operation.
“We don’t want to spend our Memorial Day drinking at a picnic,” Cooper says. “We want to spend our weekend here, doing something to give back.
“I know a lot of these vets did not pass away in war,” Cooper says, “but they still served, and they deserve all this respect.”
A few days earlier, as part of a fundraising effort, Malmstedt spoke to the cadets of St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights about the nonprofit behind the flags.
It has grown since that phone call to the cemetery: Now, Malmstedt’s nonprofit has a co-leader, MacKenzie Anderson, a board of directors and other individuals and companies who help provide storage space, T-shirts, labor and more.
“We are a small, volunteer-based nonprofit,” she told the cadets. “Myself, my partner and my other board members, all of us are volunteers. We put in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of unpaid hours toward this mission every single year …
” … Now, 10 years later, it seems like it’s a well-oiled machine, but it takes a lot of work to get there,” she said. “The first year that we did this as a nonprofit, we were able to raise funds to place 10,000 flags … it was overwhelming that year, just to see 10,000 flags. However, now in our 10th year, we will be close to placing 195,000 flags.
“Not only do we place those flags Memorial Day weekend, but they are able to stay out and be visible and be out for honoring and remembering all week during that Memorial week; we also have to go back out and pick up all flags so we can store them and reuse them for years to come.
“With that being said, the cemetery does grow on average of 5,300 people every single year for interments. With those growing costs, so do our costs for flags and all of the other operational needs to be able to make this happen every single year. The only way that we make this happen and continue to honor and remember all those laid to rest at Fort Snelling National Cemetery is through the generosity of the donations that we receive and the volunteers that come and help us.”
As she spoke, one young man in particular was impressed: her son.
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“Just the sheer will that she has to tackle something like this is inspiring to me,” says Logan Ogroske, an 18-year-old college student who accompanied his mother to St. Thomas Academy. “It gives me inspiration that I can tackle things, too.”
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kim Friede, a military leadership instructor at St. Thomas Academy, is also inspired — especially with the visual impact that illustrates the ripple effect of one person’s decision to step up.
“If you’ve ever passed Fort Snelling National Cemetery during the Memorial Day weekend, then you know the emotional experience that is created by a virtual sea of U.S. flags placed on each and every gravesite,” Friede told the cadets. “It simply takes your breath away.”
The cadets donated more than $2,000 to the nonprofit. Some signed up to volunteer, too.
Flags for Fort Snelling
After the Memorial Day observation, Flags for Fort Snelling is seeking volunteers to collect flags for return to storage on May 31 (and potentially continuing the work on June 1).
To register, donate or learn more, visit flagsforfortsnelling.com.
Other volunteering opportunities: If you or your organization are interested in volunteering at a VA national cemetery near you, visit cem.va.gov/volunteer.
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