Ceremony Draws Crowd
by Bea Peterson
The Annual Elks Club Flag Day Ceremony held at the American Legion building on Main Street in Hoosick Falls was very well attended this year. Between the participants, band members and the general audience, there were at least 200 people sitting and standing across the lawn. [private]Perhaps it was the tasty desserts or the drawings that were auctioned at the program’s end that enticed such a large crowd. Or perhaps it was just a general feeling of patriotism. As Elks Club member Terri Burdick read the history of each flag, Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts proudly carried these flags, which depict a moment in our country’s history, for all to see. The Community Band provided beautiful patriotic music for the occasion, and the American Legion Honor Guard fired a salute.
Special Flag
The highlight of the event was the opening of the flag that will fly over the places worldwide where Hoosick soldiers are buried. The flag was first flown over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. It has flown over the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial and, at Saturday’s ceremony, it was handed over to the Patriot Guard Motorcycle Group that will see that the flag is flown over the Civil War cemeteries at Gettysburg, Antietam and Harper’s Ferry. Then they will hand it over to another Patriot Guard Group that will take it to the remaining Civil War cemeteries. Once it returns to Hoosick Falls, it will then make its way to eight European locations, as funds permit.
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