ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With Memorial Day on Monday, stars and stripes now blanket Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, thanks to Boy Scout Troop 195. 

For the 17th straight year the scouts placed American Flags at the gravesites of veterans.

It's a tradition started by former scout master Mike Civiletti in 2001. Civiletti was killed years later by a drunk driver. The flag tradition continues in his memory.

Organizers say when it first started they were only able to do about 200 graves.

Now thanks to help from Holy Sepulchre, they place flags at each of the more than 5,500 gravesites of veterans.

"It's just an honor, and I believe a necessary one," said Dean Austin, Troop 195 Troopmaster. "And so do our boys. This is one event that, if they're physically in Rochester, they make it, more so than anything else."

Troop 195 was helped this year by Troop 233 out of Irondequoit and a group of public volunteers