Honoring Our Flag

GIVEAKIDAFLAGTOWAVE

Our Exchange Club, in continued efforts to promote Americanism each year, gives scores of young people in our community American flags to wave. These flag give-a-way efforts usually take place at a patriotically-themed event, such as a Fourth of July parade. Shown below are two photos from the Memorial Day celebration on Balboa Island, where we distributed hundreds of small flags to the kids.

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Flag Retirement

Attempting to heighten our communities’ awareness of our country’s heritage and the need to display its flag, the club has developed a flag retirement ceremony. Our goal is to both provide flag-flying community members a place to properly dispose of their ageing flags and to present to local students a ceremony that correctly carries out the task of retiring an American flag.

So Proudly We Hail

At various times during each year, the club recognizes members of our community who consistently and prominently display our country's flag. Each selected individual is invited to lunch, given a plaque of appreciation and a standing ovation.

American Flag

"Our flag carries American ideas, American history and American feelings. It is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the Government. It is the emblem of the sovereignty of the people. It is the NATION."

Henry Ward Beecher, 1861

The Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act in 1777. It described how the flag should look. At the time, it included 13 stars and 13 stripes, one for what had been, before the American Revolution, the 13 original colonies.

Between then and 1960, Congress passed several more acts, primarily to indicate the admission of new states. Today there are 50 stars, representing the 50 states, while the stripes remain a reminder of the original colonies.

The colors of the flag are important, too. The red stands for hardiness and valor. The white stands for purity and innocence. The blue stands for vigilance, perseverance and justice.