Freedom Day

[FamilyGal]

What an AWESOME presentation at Oak Ridge High School this morning! The elementary kids walked to the high school and the ROTC performed, the band, etc... They had a balloon for every single person in the audience and they were all let go at the end of the ceremony. It was very cool.

Then, this afternoon my son and two other scouts presented the flags for the afternoon Veteran celebration at the elementary school. I was SO proud of my son. He called out the orders and led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance.

This weekend, at the camping trip, we are going to do a flag retirement ceremony. Each boy will put a stripe into the fire and my husband, the Cubmaster, will put the stars into the fire. While doing this, we will be reading a piece of information about the flag and have music playing in the background. Tomorrow morning, after the embers are cooled off, I will gather the ashes and put them in film canisters that I will label with the date and that it was a flag retirement ceremony. I think it will be really cool.

[MomTimesFive]

Tomorrow morning, after the embers are cooled off, I will gather the ashes and put them in film canisters that I will label with the date and that it was a flag retirement ceremony. I think it will be really cool.

What a fantastic idea! Things like watching my older kids in plays and ceremonies always put a lump in my throat and brought tears to my eyes. I can't wait for my younger three kids to get involved in things like that. This time around, I'll know to carry Kleenex!

[FamilyGal]

It turned out REALLY great. When you retire a flag, you cut each stripe out and the stars (you keep the stars together to represent the colonies). Each boy had a stripe and my husband read what each color/stripe represented. The boys each dropped a stripe into the fire while he read that. Then, the Asst. Cubmaster put the stars into the fire. We played three patriotic songs and then my husband read a poem called, "Remember Me?" that talked about the flag and how people used to honor it, etc...

The boys were SO good. None of them made a peep during the ceremony. We had other people in the campgrounds make a comment today about how they heard the music and thought it was an awesome ceremony. I just can't tell you how well these 2nd grade boys did! I gathered all of the ashes when they cooled and will give them each a souvenir of the ceremony. I also gathered the grommets from the ashes and will hang them on our pack flag. And, it all happen to occur on Veteran's Day weekend. We didn't plan that.




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[Wilson]

Very cool.