Knights of Columbus, Scouts retire 76 worn U.S. flags in Homewood
Two Homewood-based Scout troops joined the Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Assembly on Saturday night for the Knights’ annual ceremony to retire worn U.S. flags.
Eleven Scouts from Troop 97, based out of Trinity Methodist Church, and Troop 237, based out of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, retired 76 U.S. flags in a ceremony that lasted less than 15 minutes.
The ceremony was held on the top level of the parking deck behind Our Lady of Sorrows and was being done in conjunction with Flag Day, which is this coming Friday, June 14.
People dropped off most of the flags at the church on Saturday, but others were collected in advance, said Rick Lange, the “Faithful Navigator” (or head) of the 4th Degree Assembly. The flags were cut up prior to the ceremony, separating the blue field of stars from the red and white stripes, he said.
The flags were then bundled together in a shopping cart, and after saying the Pledge of Allegiance, the Scouts took turns placing the cut-up flags in three barrels that had fires in them.
The ashes of the burnt flags will be buried, Lange said. The Knights of Columbus still have the ashes from the previous four years of flag burning and plan to combine all the ashes and bury them together, perhaps at a Scout camp, he said. About 30 people attended the ceremony Saturday.