Local Boy Scout troop holds American flag retirement ceremony
CHICORA — Chicora Municipal Park was filled with ceremony Thursday, as American flags were retired by fire at the end of the park's basketball court.
The Chicora chapter of the American Legion and Boy Scouts from Troop 217 continued their annual Flag Day ceremony. During the ceremony the two groups provide a proper send-off for unserviceable flags given to them by members of the community.
According to Fred Callihan, vice commander of the Chicora chapter of the American Legion, the club has held this event with the Boy Scouts for 10 years. “A lot of people, when their flags get old, they don't know what to do,” Callihan said. “We started getting connected with the scouts who burn them and they asked us to come down and post the colors.”
While offering a way to properly dispose of flags, the ceremony is also meant to show the scouts that participate the proper way to dispose of a flag.Part of the ceremony involved the scouts presenting a few of the flags to their scoutmaster for review. After the review the scouts walked to two burn barrels located by the park's basketball hoop, and unfurled the flags into the fire.Residents from the area enjoyed the sun and wind while watching the ceremony take place,One of those residents was Pam Osmer, of Petrolia, who donated a few of her own flags, which were worn from whipping in the wind outside her house. Osmer was excited to finally make it to the ceremony, after repeatedly missing the event in previous years.“The reason I came was because I always wanted to see it,” she said. “I always miss them, but I came to the best one.”
Osmer says she came to the best one because during this year's ceremony the troop was retiring the largest number of flags they had ever received, according to Evan Peterson, committee chairman and assistant scout master for Troop 217.The donated flags filed six post office letter carrier boxes that sat on the ground, two cardboard boxes and multiple garbage bags that rested on a park bench. “We usually get about half this,” said Ron Huff, a chapter representative for the Boy Scouts. “I bet we've got between 1,500 to 2,000 flags, without counting them all.”Peterson said the ceremony signifies the reverence Americans feel for the flag.“One of the neat things about the flag, as the scoutmaster said during the ceremony, it doesn't matter how much it costs or anything like that. It all means the same thing,” said Peterson.
