Local Elks schedule Flag Day ceremony

Van Wert Elks news

Van Wert Elks Lodge 1197 invites area residents to attend its annual Flag Day Services, which will be held on Wednesday, June 12, at 7 p.m. at the lodge, located off Van Wert-Decatur Road in Van Wert. The Van Wert unit of the Civil Air Patrol will also participate.

Flag Day, celebrated each June 14 as specified by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, honors the creation of the “Stars and Stripes” as the official flag of the United States. Flag Day did not become formally recognized until President Harry S. Truman, himself an Elk, signed the resolution in 1949 declaring Flag Day an official national holiday.

The Continental Congress adopted the design of the Stars and Stripes on June 14, 1777, resolving that “The flag of the United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

The Elks is the first and only fraternal organization to mandate that, on June 14 every year, each lodge must conduct a solemn and beautiful Flag Day ceremony.  This ceremony is open to the public so to show our local communities that we honor our flag and all it represents.

As part of this year’s ceremony the local lodge winners of the Grand Lodge Americanism Contest will read their winning essays.

Local Elks Exalted Ruler Gerard Mazur encourages everyone to attend the lodge’s Flag Day ceremony, while the Elks also urge all citizens to proudly display the flag on Flag Day.