Ceremony to retire unserviceable flags on June 14 at Cranberry Township Community Park
On Sunday, June 14, a Retire Your Old Glory ceremony is set to take place at Cranberry Township Community Park in honor of the U.S. semiquincentennial and Flag Day. The event is scheduled to take place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Participants include Cranberry Township officials, as well as members of the townships’ volunteer fire department, Cub Scout pack 406 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 879.
The ceremony is organized by Retire Your Old Glory, a nonprofit dedicated to collecting and properly disposing of unserviceable U.S. flags.
The ceremony is open to the public. In addition to retired flags collected so far, any attendees can bring their unserviceable American flags.
The township will designate an area at the park as a permanent retirement area for ashes of retired flags, said Denise Etter, founder of Retire your Old Glory.
Retiring torn, tattered or faded American flags is far from a new concept, Etter said.
In accordance with the U.S. flag code, she said unserviceable flags should be ceremoniously retired and replaced. But many are unaware of the requirement, and those who know often don’t know how to retire their flags correctly.
Etter’s goal of spreading awareness led to starting Retire Your Old Glory as a volunteer-run, nonprofit organization in 2011. Since then, she has worked on making flag retirement more accessible by setting up collection bins in various locations.
Libraries, community centers, government buildings and other different types of sites work to collect flags in need of retirement, Etter said.
Flags are collected monthly and the number collected is updated on the website monthly as well.
Fifteen years after its founding, the organization has collected more than 60,000 U.S. flags from 16 locations: 14 in Pennsylvania and two in Fredericksburg, Va.
The bin located inside Cranberry Township’s Municipal Center has collected more than 13,000 of the flags.
Many local organizations have collaborated toward the project, including Scouting America, Girl Scouts, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Daughters of the American Revolution.
The project and the upcoming event is also personal for Etter.
“(The organization is) a lasting commitment to honoring the American flag, supporting community service and bringing people together in respect and gratitude for Old Glory,” Etter said. “And it is also to honor my husband’s service as a veteran of the United States Army.”
