On most Memorial Day mornings in the Snoqualmie Valley, members of the American Legion Renton-Pickering Post 79 are already on the move.

Their day will start at Preston Cemetery, then move to Fall City, North Bend and finally back to Snoqualmie for a closing ceremony at the post. For some members, the day is not over yet. Many continue on to the Tahoma National Cemetery, where they help provide funeral honors services.

“Memorial Day, unlike Veterans Day, is focused on those who have perished,” said Post 79 Commander Chad Magendez. “It’s supposed to be an opportunity for us to reflect on the sacrifices that were made in order to keep our nation whole and protect the freedoms that we enjoy.”

For the veterans of Post 79, the local chapter of the country’s largest veterans service organization, Memorial Day is not just a holiday or a ceremony, but a public expression of the group’s larger mission: honoring fallen service members, supporting veterans’ families and being active in the community year-round, Magendez said.

Through funeral honors, helping youth programs and giving aid to local veterans, the post uses Memorial Day to remind residents that remembrance is an ongoing act, he said.

At the local cemeteries, the ceremonies are modest but meaningful, Magendez said. Community members gather together, some with relatives who have served going back multiple generations. At the larger ceremony at the Tahoma National Cemetery, volunteers of local Boy Scouts or high school students will place flags on the veterans’ graves.

Local residents and elected officials, including mayors, county representatives and state lawmakers, attend the ceremonies each year.

For the people who organize these ceremonies, the work is personal, Magendez said.

The members of Post 79 served in all branches of the service. Some of them lost friends in combat. They craved the bond formed during their military service and wanted a way to maintain that connection after returning to civilian life, Magendez said.

“When you go through something that asks so much of you, you look around you, and you find yourself in a very tight-knit community, having gone through something like that together,” said Magendez. “It’s nice to have a community that you can go to that understands what you’ve been through, and they share the same sacrifices and experiences that you have as a veteran.”

That bond fuels another major part of the post’s service: Funeral honors.

Members of the Post Honor Guard, including post adjutant George Townsend, regularly assist with military funeral services. These services include rifle volleys, taps and the presentation of an American flag to surviving family members.

According to Townsend, one of the most powerful moments occurs as Taps comes to a close, when the flag is presented to the next of kin.

“That’s one of the things that keeps us coming back,” said Townsend. “Seeing the looks on the faces of the family of the deceased, knowing that we’re sending off one of our brothers or sisters to Valhalla.”

Beyond participating in ceremonies, Memorial Day weekend is when the post holds its public fundraiser. Volunteers hand out red poppies outside the Snoqualmie QFC, collecting donations for the American Legion’s Poppy Fund, which helps veterans and their families through charitable projects, providing food, oxygen, wheelchairs, and more.

Outside of Memorial Day weekend, the post remains active year-round. In partnership with the Snoqualmie Tribe, the post distributes turkeys at Thanksgiving and hams at Christmas, sponsors scholarships for local students, sponsors youth athletics and partners with local community organizations.

Recently, the post helped with the installation of a statue in the Snoqualmie Veterans Memorial. The sculpture depicts a woman reaching down with a rose and is surrounded by memorial bricks engraved with veterans’ names.

For Post 79, Memorial Day is not confined to one Monday in May, Magendez said, it is one stop on a year-round path to honoring the past and giving back to others to have a brighter future.

“We have three phases to our lives,” said Magendez. “We serve our country, we serve our families and then we serve our community and pay it forward.”