A Milwaukee woman is transforming pallets into American flags, then using the money from sales to buy veterans headstones.

She’s donating to a program offered at Forest Home Cemetery where people can help purchase a headstone for a Civil War veteran.

There are dozens of unmarked graves at Forest Home. Veteran headstones are free of charge, but there’s a $175 installation fee.

Dawn Nadboralski wants to buy headstones for all of the Civil War veterans’ graves. It’s why she spends almost all her free time in her father’s garage, painting American flag pallets.

“So far, I’ve painted roughly 30 and sold about 26,” Nadboralski said. “I would say [it takes] at least 6 hours total probably for one flag.”

She’s doing it to honor her late father, who died in 2018 and served in the Army for seven years.

“I had an extremely hard time with grieving so I decided to start painting these and sell them,” Nadboralski said. “My goal was to purchase one headstone by the anniversary of his death this year. By the anniversary I’d purchased three, so I was ecstatic. Now I just want to keep going, as many as I can buy until the project’s done.”

It takes Nadboralski about six hours to paint one American flag pallet. She gets the pallets from all over town, in garbage dumps, construction sites or on Facebook Maretplace. A painted American flag pallet runs for $35 to $60 each.

Nadboralski said each flag brings her closer to her father.

“He loved anything to do with veterans when he was alive. He participated in pretty much anything he could to support the service,” Nadboralski said “He would be ecstatic. Doing this has also helped me through my own grieving, so it’s like my own therapy too. I’m doing it out of his garage using his tools. He would be very proud.”

If you’re interested in buying an American flag pallet or want to donate to the cause, you can contact Nadboralski through her Facebook or email her at dawn.nadboralski@ .