Local Elks Lodge to hold Flag Day ceremony

VW independent staff and submitted information

All citizens are encouraged to attend the annual Flag Day services, scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 15, at Elks Lodge 1197.

The annual event is sponsored by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The Boy Scouts of America will participate as well.

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