ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A 13-year-old California boy spent several hours at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery Tuesday, decorating 4,000 graves with red carnations and small American flags. Preston Sharp is on a mission to honor veterans every day. So far it's taken him to 27 states and he's decorated more than 200,000 graves.
It started about four years ago when he went to his grandfather's grave on Veterans Day.
"Sometimes on my post I'll do, 'help me go to a different cemetery or to your state' and then I put a fundraiser thing on that post," Sharp says.
He spends up to a couple of weeks a month visiting cemeteries. When he's traveling he does his school work online.
Sharp plans to go to all 50 states and then head overseas. He also wants to focus on veteran suicides.
"Because," he says, "20 veterans a day commit suicide and that's 20 too many and I'm really mad about that."
The teen's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. He has met President Donald Trump, toured the White House and the Capitol, and attended a State-of-the-Union address.
"It's just amazing that something I started because my grandfather wasn't being honored on Veterans' Day, or other any veterans weren't at the cemetery where my grandfather's buried at, and it turned into me meeting the President," Sharp says.
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