This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Veterans Day Flag Retirement Ceremony

Public Ceremonies and Celebrations Committee
Flag Retirement



The Flag Retirement Ceremony is a Concord Veteran’s Day tradition that enables Concordians the opportunity to retire their American Flags in a respectful and appropriate manner.  This local ceremony was established in 1965 by James Carroll, Francis McDonald, Bernard Rushe, Thomas Tombeno, and Clark McClevin, who felt that the many cemetery flags, which were torn and faded from  being left in place through the fall and winter months, honored neither our nation’s colors nor our departed veterans.  It was decided that each year, on Veteran’s Day, the worn flags would be collected by the Public Ceremonies and Celebrations Committee and retired in an appropriate manner.



This year, the Flag Retirement Ceremony will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday November 11.  The small parade will assemble at Prichard Gate of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Bedford Street.  We will march to the flagpole for a flag-raising ceremony and then proceed to the place where the worn flags will be retired.  Citizens are invited to attend and are encouraged to participate in the ceremony.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.



You may drop off your worn and faded flags at one of the following locations:  The Town House, the Concord Police Station, Harvey Wheeler Community Center, either of the Concord Fire stations or either of the two Post Offices.  Concord Scouts will prepare the flags for retirement.  The deadline for dropping of your flags is November 2, 2012.



If you have any questions, please contact one of the members of Concord’s Public Ceremonies and Celebrations Committee: Kevin Paulsen (Chair), Joel Bohy, Keith Nelms, Staci Bowen, Claudia Curran, Michael Benn and Colleen Giddings.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Concord