What started as an act of kindness on Memorial Day by a group of Clear Creek County at-risk youth turned into a massive undertaking to find and chronicle the graves of deceased county veterans.
It began when the boys in the Clear Creek Rite of Passage Mount Evans Qualifying House volunteered to put flags on veterans’ graves in five Clear Creek cemeteries.
As they located the graves, the boys began wondering who in 10 to 20 years would remember the veterans’ stories and where they were buried, said Rite of Passage mentor Troy Erickson.
“So that’s when we decided that we would visit each cemetery and we would GPS and photograph each stone,” Erickson said.
Over the summer, the boys scoured the county looking through graveyards for military veterans. They chronicled, photographed and noted the location of every veteran they could find.
With exhaustive detail and precision, the young men created five books for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4121. Each book represents the information they found at each cemetery.
They presented their findings to post commander Gene Eddy at a veterans dinner in mid-November.
In addition, on Dec. 7, one of the Rite of Passage students coordinated a Pearl Harbor Day Remembrance event in cooperation with the VFW.
Eddy said the books chronicling the Clear Creek County veterans were an unexpected surprise.
“I thought it was awesome,” Eddy said. “It caught me so flat footed at dinner because that’s when they presented it to us — it was a total, total surprise.”
Previously, there were few or no records on where veterans were buried in Clear Creek County.
Erickson said the idea behind the books with locations of past veterans came about because records existed only in people’s memories.
“One of the things that the VFW had mentioned was, ‘Wow, we had gone on memory for so long that we’ve kind of forgotten where some of these folks are buried.’” Erickson said. “It started out with us realizing they had not written anything down.”
So the boys took on the task of writing everything down from one end of the county to the other and in the process unraveling county mysteries — like where a Confederate soldier is buried in Dumont.
Erickson said the kids in the program got into both the history of the project and its scavenger hunt-like nature.
“And so it took us a good chunk of the summer. It was a big project, but it was a good project,” Erickson said.
 “It is amazing how much history there is on our local cemeteries,” said 18-year-old Jeremy, whose last name was withheld for reasons of confidentiality. “We drive by them everyday and forget to realize that each of these people has their own story. Completing this project was a great way to learn and develop a deep respect for the many people who have given us the freedom we take for granted.”
Erik, 18, said he liked how the project he worked on helped to honor veterans.
“It was pretty cool being able to honor someone who paid the ultimate price for us to live the lives we do,” Erik said.
Lloyd, 18, said the smiles on the faces of the VFW veterans when they received the books made the work worth it for him.
Erickson said they still have a lot to do, and their records are by no means complete.
“We’re sure we missed people. We would definitely like to know if we did. If people know about veterans, if there’s a story they could give us, our vision is 50 years from now somebody’s great-great-grandchildren can go look at this book and (the veterans) won’t be forgotten,” Erickson said.
Erickson said if someone has information about Clear Creek veterans or would like to see the books to contact Eddy, who is also the county’s veteran’s service officer, at 303-567-3133.

Contact Ian Neligh at couranteditor@evergreenco.com, and check  www.clearcreekcourant.com for updates and breaking news.