Kiwanis Club kicks off flag program on MLK Day
Flags set up at Military Veterans Memorial Park in Meadowlakes by Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club in honor of Flag Day on June 14, 2021. File photo
Fly the American flag with pride on eight federal holidays while helping fund a local organization’s grant program. The Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club’s Community Flag Program sells subscriptions for $50 a flag. Each flag purchased is displayed on eight major holidays a year. The first day club members set up Old Glory in 2024 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 15.
“Everyone loves to see the display of flags on holidays,” said Kiwanis Club President Frank Kloke. “We’re real proud of our program.”
The money funds annual grants to a variety of organizations aimed at helping young people. The top two are the Boys and Girls Club of the Highland Lakes and the Marble Falls Education Foundation.
“Between these two (nonprofits above), we impact over 1,000 kids a year,” Kloke said. “This fits our mission very well. Outside of that, we support about 12 other organizations that impact another 1,000 kids a year.”
The club’s mission, as stated on the Kiwanis website, is to help kids around the world take on large-scale challenges, such as fighting disease and poverty. Service is at the heart of every Kiwanis club, no matter its location. Each year, clubs around the world stage nearly 150,000 service projects and raise around $100 million for their communities.
“We are generous with our time,” reads the web statement. “We are creative with our ideas. We are passionate about making a difference. And we have fun along the way.”
Setting up more than 200 three-foot-by-five-foot flags is fun but challenging, Kloke said.
“About 80 percent of the flags are on vertical poles stuck in holes in the ground, and we have to maintain those holes all year round,” he said. “We also have to replace our stock of flags regularly. That’s part of the maintenance.”
Club members drill holes in the ground for flagpole containers. Locating and cleaning out the containers, which can become overtaken by vegetation in between holidays, is not always easy.
Volunteers set out flags on MLK Day in January, Presidents Day in February, Memorial Day in May, Flag Day in June, Independence Day in July, Labor Day and Patriots Day in September, and Veterans Day in November. If bad weather strikes on one these holidays, the club makes it up on another special date, usually Pearl Harbor Day in December.
The cost is minimal, but the impact is huge. Businesses, organizations, and individuals pay only $50 a year per flag, which is flown on all eight holidays. You can buy as many flags as you want.
“We have several businesses who buy four or five flags at $50 each,” Kloke said. “Each $50 pays for eight flag days.”
Flags are staged each year at Military Veterans Memorial Park in Meadowlakes and in Horseshoe Bay.
“The city of Marble Falls, Meadowlakes, and Horseshoe Bay have been very supportive,” Kloke said. “The organizations, the businesses, they have always been supportive, and we appreciate that. We make it easy for them to display flags on those important days of the year where they might not do it otherwise on their own.”
The Kiwanis do more than fly flags to raise money for grants.
“Four times a year, we close down Main Street in Marble Falls for big events,” Kloke said.
Three of those events are Market Days with vendors and live music. The fourth is a car show in October.
To subscribe to the Community Flag Program, visit HighlandLakesKiwanis.org/flag-signup to fill out the one-page form.