'Preston, a job well done,' President Trump says to Redding 12-year-old in SOTU
Update at 6:35 p.m.
President Donald Trump gave a shoutout tonight to Preston Sharp.
The president, during his State of the Union address, recognized the 12-year-old Redding boy's efforts to place flags on the graves of veterans and called him a young patriot.
"Preston, a job well done," Trump said as Preston, who stood next to First Lady Melania Trump, gave a big grin and waved his hand.
"Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans," President Trump said before telling everyone that earlier he had met Preston.
"He's something very special. Great future. Thank you for all you've done, Preston. Thank you very much."
Preston noticed veterans' graves were not marked for Veterans Day. He took action and today, he has placed 40,000 flags at gravesides, Trump said.
In giving the young boy props, Trump also renewed his attack on NFL players' take a knee movement.
"Preston's reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance and why we proudly stand for the national anthem," he said.
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first to kneel during the anthem to silently protest police brutality and inequality particularly affecting black communities. During the 2017 football season, the protest movement grew into a hot-button topic, as more athletes began to kneel and Trump denounced their action.
Original story
A 12-year-old Redding boy will be a guest Tuesday at President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech.
Preston Sharp, who has won acclaim for placing U.S. flags and flowers at the graves of North State veterans since 2015, will be one of a number of presidential guests at Trump's speech, the White House announced Monday.
He is attending the address at the invitation of Donald and Melania Trump and will sit in the House of Representatives gallery with the first lady during the speech, the White House said.
Sharp is being recognized for his work honoring veterans at military cemeteries and elsewhere, the White House said.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the presidential guests "one of the most important traditions" of the State of the Union addresses.
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Other invited presidential guests include a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who lost both his legs and eyesight in Iraq in 2007; a fire prevention technician who saved 62 people, including children, when a Southern California wildfire encircled their camp in July; and four parents whose children were killed by gang members.
Still other guests include a police officer who adopted a child from opioid-addicted parents; first-time homeowners; small-business owners who offered employees larger holiday businesses due to a package of tax cuts signed by Trump; founder of The Cajun Navy, a nonprofit group that engages in rescue efforts; and an Army staff sergeant who aided a team member wounded in November by an IED, saving his life.
"Some of these individual stories are heroic," Huckabee Sanders said. "Some are patriotic. Others are tragic."
Sharp, the creator of the Flag and Flower Challenge, has been placing flags and flowers on the graves of veterans since Veterans Day 2015.
He began doing so after visiting his U.S. Navy veteran grandfather’s grave, only to discover that there were no flags placed on the graves of veterans.
So he began to take it upon himself to do so.
“I knew I wanted to do something, because if it wasn’t for them fighting for us then we wouldn’t be here,” he has said.
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