Chicora Scouts take on their biggest flag yet at Sunday dedication
DONEGAL TWP — The members of Scouts BSA Troop 217 have done “countless” flag dedication ceremonies, but the 12-by-18-foot flag they hooked to a new flagpole at Chicora Hardware gave them a little trouble, simply because of its size.
The teenagers proved themselves up to the challenge, and managed to run the flag up the new 60-foot-tall pole just outside Chicora on Sunday morning, Nov. 12. Evan Peterson, scoutmaster of troop 217, said the ceremony was the first for many of the Cub Scouts who attended.
“I think it went pretty well, I mean, considering how big that thing was and all the hands that needed to be on it, it went smoothly,” Peterson said.
Steve Oesterling, owner of Chicora Hardware, said he and his family installed the flagpole themselves, with his son, Ryan Oesterling, digging the hole and helping to raise the metal sections on top of one another.
The initiative was important to them, Oesterling said, because his wife Jennifer Oesterling’s father, Louis Birckbichler, is a veteran of the Marine Corps.
“We wanted to do something for all vets,” Steve said. “We called the American Legion and they got the scouts here.”
The ceremony went on like most other dedications the scout troop has led, but with some changes. Because the flagpole was so tall, Peterson said the troop had 13-year-old Parker Page read a poem and 13-year-old Andrew Serafine play a bugle, which are not always part of dedication ceremonies.
Peterson led the scouts in folding the large American flag prior to the ceremony, but then only gave a few nods to the scouts to signal when they were supposed to do their part in the dedication. It took several Boy Scouts, a few Cub Scouts and all of their troop leaders to properly fold and unfold the flag because of its size.
The Scouts said they enjoy hosting flag dedications, with Andrew saying he was happy to play the bugle twice during the ceremony.
The dedication concluded with Marine Corps veteran and American Legion member Bucky Hindman presenting Birckbichler with a Marine Corps flag, which the two helped to run up the flagpole. Birckbichler founded Chicora Hardware in 1994, so he was happy to have the Marine Corps flag flying alongside an American flag at a place he created.
“I was surprised by that,” Birckbichler said of the presentation of the Marine Corps flag.
