OLS Knights, Scouts retire record number of U.S. flags

More than 140 tattered and faded U.S. flags were properly retired recently thanks to two organizations at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

About a week before the June 14 commemoration of Flag Day, members of the Monsignor Frank J. Wade Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus Assembly joined forces with Boy Scout Troop 237 to conduct a retirement ceremony for worn flags. For six hours on June 9 at the church, Knights collected flags from the public and had replacement flags available for purchase.

The assembly’s Faithful Navigator Bill Lang said there was a need for this community service.

“People kept bringing them in. There were a lot of parishioners from OLS and from other parishes around the area, but also a lot of non-Catholics. It was an opportunity for them to come on a Catholic campus and interact with us and kind of help us promote patriotism as we’re leading into Flag Day…and then the Fourth of July and the whole summer season,” he said.

The ceremony was held that evening following the Pledge of Allegiance and a presentation by Lang and Boy Scouts Aidan Lange and Hugh Tighe. The Scouts and members of the Knights, including Rick Lange, Mike Bonamy, George Bartle and Bill Mills, placed the flags into the fire as members of the public watched.

The preferred way to retire U. S. flags is burning. They cannot be buried or discarded.

Submitted by Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School.