In fact, the Honour Our Fallen initiative, which began in the Wingecarribee in 2018, will this year pay tribute to the fallen in more than 130 cemeteries across the nation.

The tributes will be more important than ever in 2020, a year when traditional Anzac Day services have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The initiative is the brainchild of Southern Highlands resident Rick McCarthy OAM. It aims to support ex-service people and honour the memory of those who fought for Australia.

Launched on Remembrance Day 2017, Honour Our Fallen was originally intended to bring together local schools to research the graves of ex-service people in their local cemeteries throughout the Highlands.

It also involved the placing of a flag on their grave or memorial plaque each Anzac Day and, in most areas, on Remembrance Day each year.

The initiative has locally been supported each year by the Mittagong RSL Club which funded the purchase of all flags laid in the region.

The not-for-profit project has grown significantly since its Highlands launch and now partners with schools and community clubs/associations in districts throughout Australia.

Mr McCarthy said it continues to encourage student research of passed Australian Defence Force personnel in their local cemetery.

Since its inception six schools in the Highlands have been involved in the program. These include Frensham, Bowral High, Chevalier and Oxley Colleges, Moss Vale High and Southern Highlands Christian School.

While the students will not lay flags on Anzac Day 2020 they have continued the educational section of the program to research their passed local veterans with the assistance of a research manual compiled to the Australian curriculum and supplied by Honour Our Fallen

Mr McCarthy told the Southern Highland News that the project aimed to instill a sense of pride about those who had served in the community, and in turn provide support for ex-service people who may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The program now has a reach into more than 130 cemeteries in six States and the ACT.

"With the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic most school groups are unable to place the flags this year, however, dedicated facilitators individually have offered to continue to Honour our Fallen by placing flags themselves while abiding by the government restrictions of social distancing and strict pre-self isolation," Mr McCarthy said.

Mr McCarthy said "this year we have a growth of 53 additional sites" compared to 2019.

"Army, Navy, Airforce, Women's Services, Nurses, Merchant Navy and Peacekeeping Forces since the Boer War," he said.

"Not only those who were deployed overseas but including all who wore the uniform, home and abroad,in support."

Mr McCarthy said he would personally be attending several cemeteries in the Highlands in the lead up to Anzac Day.

"I look forward to the opportunity to display our gratitude to all passed defence service personnel while rebuilding respect for all those who wear the uniform today, and to create community understanding of their physical and mental issues when returning from deployment and transitioning back to civilian life," he said.

Mr McCarthy said he extended a huge thanks and personal gratitude to Mittagong RSL Club for its belief in the community program.

He said the club initially sponsored the flags and supported the ground work for the program's success.

"They sponsored 500 flags and steel ground stakes to pierce the ground, OH&S to prevent student injury while standing the flags next to all grave sites, and plastic clips for smaller flags on memorial ashes walls," he said.

"Thank you for your community involvement."

Mr McCarthy with separate local area facilitators will place flags in the following Highlands cemeteries:

Flags will also be placed on grave sites and memorials in Bundanoon(4), Burrawang(12), St. Peters Burrawang(13), Marulan(5), Penrose (3), Robertson(3), St. Judes Anglican Bowral(12) and Tallong(3).

LEST WE FORGET..."THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE"