OLD GLORY

Ed Foste collects American flags after having them on display on the greenway along Railroad Street in Plains for two weeks. Foste and Dave Williams held a short ceremony for their nonprofit organization Joint Operation Mariposa at the site March 26 to bring awareness to veteran suicides. Later that night, the Navy veteran decided to start building a field of flags by putting out 20 U.S. flags every night to represent the estimated 20 veterans who take their lives each day, starting with one for his brother.

"I call this my awe and shock factor," said Foste, who retired from the Navy in 2002. "People are awed by the display and shocked by the amount of flags that went up every day." Foste ended up with 280 flags on the lawn before taking them down Monday afternoon. The Plains man had help some of the nights by residents Greg Dicken, Wayne and Mary Egbert, his mother, Zlinda Foste, Sean Peterson, and Plains Mayor Dan Rowan.