Flags for our heroes and it’s happening all across the country. It celebrates the heroes who mean the most to us. In Delaware, on Concord Pike at Mt. Lebanon Road, flags are displayed in a field of honor for both the living and the dead. It’s a touching tribute and it’s been happening since Memorial Day 2014.

For a small donation, the flags are sponsored by corporations and individuals who want to honor their heroes. It’s an opportunity to honor someone who has made a difference in your life. It could be a friend or maybe a loved one. Maybe it’s someone who is serving in the armed forces.

Your sponsorship supports the Rotary Club who transforms the lives of youth, men, women, families in transition, and community residents. It’s also tax deductible. Each flag bears the name of the sponsor and the sponsor’s hero on a tag attached to the flag.

The flags fly for a variety of heroes, not just military service members who are serving or who have served. It’s also meant for police officers, firefighters, parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, and community leaders. They all fly for the people who have made a difference in the sponsor’s life.

The field of honor is a hollow space transformed into to recognize the deceased and thank the living. For some, it’s a place to walk among the red, white, and blue. For others, it’s a place of contemplation, but for everyone, it’s a place of reflection for our heroes.

Flags for our heroes were organized in 2014 by the Montgomery Village Rotary club. In 2015, the Gaithersburg Rotary Club partnered with them, and together they have flown upwards to 750 flags. From there, other clubs joined across the country to what it is today.

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Alvin M. Owlsey, former past national commander of the American Legion, said, When Old Glory comes along, salute, and let them think what they please! When you hear the band play “The Star-Spangled Banner” while you are in a restaurant or hotel dining room, get up even if you rise alone; stand there and don’t be ashamed of it, either!”

Last year in Delaware, the donations went to the Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans. The Concord Pike location held it’s ceremony on September 11, 2015 to honor first responders and military veterans. 115 flags were erected with the help of volunteers who spent their morning installing pickets to hold the flags.