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mokenamessengerdaily.com life & arts<br />
the mokena messenger | January 16, 2020 | 19<br />
Girl Scout brings long forgotten veteran graves back into light<br />
3<br />
Mary Compton, Freelance Reporter<br />
Arwen Rolinitis, a 16-yearold<br />
from Mokena, said joining<br />
the Girl Scouts when she was in<br />
kindergarten was one of the best<br />
decisions she has ever made.<br />
And the members of Mokena<br />
VFW Post 725 might agree with<br />
her because on Jan. 8 Rolinitis<br />
presented her project on locating<br />
veterans’ graves in Mokena’s<br />
cemeteries.<br />
“The project I chose to do was<br />
to work with the Mokena VFW<br />
and St. John’s Cemetery to arrange<br />
a better method of flag<br />
placement for Memorial Day,”<br />
Rolinitis said. The junior at<br />
Lincoln-Way Central has volunteered<br />
placing flags on veterans’<br />
graves since 2014. “There is an<br />
older part in St. John’s cemetery<br />
that is so difficult to find all of<br />
the graves. I wanted to create a<br />
method to find all the veteran<br />
graves to make sure everyone<br />
was remembered.”<br />
It took Rolinitis two years to<br />
complete the project. During<br />
her 12 years as a Girl Scout, she<br />
has earned multiple badges. For<br />
this project, Rolinitis hopes to<br />
earn the Girl Scout Gold Award,<br />
which is the equivalent to being<br />
named an Eagle Scout. According<br />
to Rolinitis, only 6 percent of<br />
Girl Scouts earn this prestigious<br />
award.<br />
“The way the Gold Award<br />
works is that you have to do a<br />
project by yourself, everything<br />
needs to be original and community<br />
driven,” Rolinitis said.<br />
“I thought, ‘Why not help in the<br />
community that I already serve<br />
in?’ You can only receive the<br />
Gold Award when you have gotten<br />
the final approval. The Gold<br />
Award project has to be presented<br />
to various groups. Presenting<br />
this project to the VFW is one<br />
step in getting the award.”<br />
Rolinitis has already received<br />
the Girl Scout Silver and Bronze<br />
Awards, and Gold Award Girl<br />
Scouts are the dreamers and the<br />
doers who take “make the world<br />
a better place” to the next level,<br />
according to the Girl Scout website.<br />
Those who earn the Gold<br />
Award tackle issues that are dear<br />
to them and drive lasting change<br />
in their communities and beyond.<br />
Think of the Gold Award<br />
as a key that can open doors to<br />
scholarships, preferred admission<br />
tracks for college and amazing<br />
career opportunities.<br />
Paul Walztoni, Trustee for the<br />
VFW Post 725 Auxiliary, asked<br />
Rolinitis to present her final<br />
project at their meeting.<br />
“The VFW puts American<br />
flags on all the veterans graves<br />
every Memorial Day [at] St.<br />
Mary’s, St. John’s and Pioneer<br />
[Cemetery],” Waltzoni said.<br />
“The Friday before Memorial<br />
Day we have the Girl and Boy<br />
Scouts helping us. St. John’s<br />
is a difficult cemetery to map<br />
because there is an old section<br />
with no real roads. A lot of headstones<br />
are also worn out and difficult<br />
to read. Arwen noticed it<br />
was difficult to find some of the<br />
veterans’ graves with the map I<br />
provided. She took it upon herself<br />
to begin to organize a new<br />
map as part of her Gold Award<br />
project.”<br />
Rolinitis began documenting<br />
everything. Along with scout<br />
mates and the Lincoln-Way<br />
ROTC, they began to bring paper<br />
and rub the names from the<br />
old headstones. Rolinitis then<br />
began to research the names and<br />
found 15 veteran’s graves that<br />
nobody knew about.<br />
“I know there was one grave,<br />
the headstone was barely readable,”<br />
Waltzoni said. “I have<br />
walked the cemetery for years<br />
and totally missed it. Arwen<br />
etched the headstone and was<br />
able to find out he was a Civil<br />
War veteran. I would have never<br />
found it. This past Memorial<br />
Day was the first time that grave<br />
had an American flag. Because<br />
of Arwen we have more veterans<br />
on our list to put flags on.”<br />
Mokena’s cemeteries include<br />
Girl Scout Arwen Rolinitis, of Mokena, presents a copy of her Gold Award project Jan. 8 to Paul<br />
Walztoni, trustee for the Mokena VFW Post 725 Auxiliary. Arwen spent two years remapping St. John’s<br />
Cemetery to uncover forgotten veterans’ graves. Photos by Mary Compton/22nd Century Media<br />
Arwen Rolinitis looks at her father, Mike Rolinitis, as they speak about Arwen’s project on documenting<br />
veterans’ graves in Mokena.<br />
veterans from the Revolutionary<br />
and Civil Wars to more recent<br />
conflicts, such as the one in Afghanistan<br />
that claimed the life of<br />
Pfc. Aaron Toppen in 2014.<br />
“She realized the frustration<br />
of not being able to find the<br />
gravesites. Because of her map,<br />
these veterans will not be forgotten,”<br />
Waltzoni said.<br />
Rolinitis’ dedication to this<br />
project was two-fold: to honor<br />
her grandfather Darrell Rolinitis,<br />
who served in Vietnam, and to be<br />
like her father, Michael Rolinitis,<br />
who is the principal of Mokena<br />
Junior High.<br />
“Accomplishing this is one of<br />
my top goals I’ve had,” she said.<br />
“My dad was an Eagle Scout. I<br />
want to be just like him.”
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