(From The Daily Herald, June 16, 2009)Scouts burn soiled and tattered flags in traditional ceremony
The weather cooperated as a crowd of people gathered in the parking lot of Macey's Food & Drug on 500 West in Provo for the Freedom Festival's annual Flag Retirement Ceremony.
Jacob Bigler, 14, of Provo, and Wesley Green, 13, of Springville, took part in the retirement of the flags. "We are retiring flags that represent our country and that is really neat," Bigler said. "It is a good experience."
The scouts learned how to fold flags and how to correctly retire them.
"We get to learn a lot," Green said.
Bigler and Green are both part of Boy Scout Troop 999 headed by Scoutmaster Andy "Bear" Baggs, of Provo. Troop 999 hosted the event and welcomed other Scouts and Girl Scouts, over age 12 and in full uniform, to participate in the retirement ceremony.
Baggs said most of the flags retired come from communities in Utah Valley. Troop 999 has been retiring flags for nearly 20 years, he said, and was asked by the Provo City Council to participate in the Freedom Festival flag retirement.
"It has grown immensely," Baggs said. "We've done it for a lot of years and retired a lot of flags."
The group retired flags that have become too tattered and worn to represent the values of the U.S. According to the U.S. Flag Code, "The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning" (36 USC 19 176K).
3 comments:
I wondered why they were selling hotdogs and popcorn at Macey's yesterday. Is that what all the stands were up in the parking lot for?
Yeah, its pretty cool. They do it every year for Flag Day. You guys should go next year. Coolister could participate if he wanted...just needs to be in full uniform. Its quite a sight.
What a great picture. It should have been in the newspaper. After all, it shows our grandson!!!
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