Kiwanis Club turns Highland Lakes red, white, and blue for patriotic holidays

“’Tis the star-spangled banner—O long may it wave, O’er” memorials to veterans and solemnly marked graves in the Highland Lakes. 

Apologies to Francis Scott Key for twisting lines from his famous poem-turned-national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but it seemed fitting for a Memorial Day story about how one local club honors veterans. This year, Memorial Day falls on Monday, May 26. 

Unlike other patriotic holidays, Memorial Day focuses on those who died in service to their country. The U.S. flag plays a starring role in these commemorations, which include the Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club flag program. The club sets up over 200 flags on seven holidays at memorial sites, parks, and businesses in Marble Falls, Horseshoe Bay, Meadowlakes, and Cottonwood Shores. 

“The people who served our country deserve to be recognized, and the flag is the best way to recognize them,” said club member Drew Claes of Meadowlakes. “Most of the veterans I’m aware of respect the flag. It’s the utmost symbol of respect for our country.” 

Claes is a Vietnam War veteran and a volunteer in the Kiwanis Club’s flag program. The club posts sponsored flags on Martin Luther King Jr., Presidents’, Memorial, Independence, Labor, Patriots’, and Veterans days. The cost is $50 a year for each flag and includes all seven holidays. Kiwanis members unfurl the flags early in the morning and roll them up and store them away before dark on each holiday.

“The local flag program is our major fundraising activity,” said Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club President Kathy van Eeten. “The Kiwanis have been doing this for about 30 years now. All of our money goes to scholarships, youth organizations, and schools in the Highland Lakes area.”

The program was started by J.C. Hopkins, a decorated World War II hero who owned a florist shop in Pampa, Texas, and was in charge of the Pampa Kiwanis Club’s flag program. When Hopkins and his wife retired to Marble Falls, he joined the local Kiwanis club and started the flag program in his new hometown. 

Claes has embraced the tradition, not only volunteering in the program but also purchasing three flags for three pavers at Military Veterans Memorial Park in Meadowlakes. The park has around 190 pavers honoring veterans from across the United States who have connections to the gated incorporated community. 

Two of Claes’ flags are for family: his father, Howard Claes, and his father-in-law, Peter Scerba, both World War II combat veterans from Ohio. The third is for Jess Lofgreen, a Vietnam veteran from Meadowlakes who funded an Honors Flight for fellow military retirees in his community. 

Honor Flight is a nonprofit organization that pays for U.S. veterans to visit the memorials in Washington, D.C. 

“Lofgreen went on an Honor Flight out of Austin, and he was so moved by the experience that, when he got back, he felt all veterans should go,” Claes said. “My father and I went, and we were the first father-son team from Austin to go. It was a super-special experience.” 

Claes and his father took the Honor Flight in 2022. His father died a year later at the age of 98.   

Bob Fenlon, another Vietnam veteran and Kiwanis Club member who lives in Meadowlakes, is also on the flag team. 

“To me, the flag represents justice, patriotism, and the American values that we’ve had since the beginning of our country,” he said. “It also represents the commitment of the service men and women to the country and all the lives that are lost in the wars to preserve the American way. To me, Memorial Day is the remembrance of those who paid the ultimate price.”

Although he is not a veteran, Meadowlakes resident and club member Mark Watkins feels just as strongly about honoring military personnel. 

“We do it to keep the tradition going,” he said, “and to honor those who have gone before us and served our country.” 

The Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club has a second flag program, the Star Project, which recycles parts of worn-out flags to honor the veterans they meet in day-to-day life. One day a year, club members hold a party to cut the stars out of retired flags. Each star is packaged with a slip of paper that says: 

I am part of an American flag that flew over the USA. I can no longer fly. The sun and winds caused me to become tattered and torn. Please carry me as a reminder that you are not forgotten.

Thank you from the Kiwanis Club of Marble Falls, TX.

StarsForOurTroops.org

After the stars are cut out, local Boy Scouts or VFW members properly destroy the remaining pieces of the flag. 

“They serve two purposes: one, to honor our veterans or first responders, and two, once a year, to have a social event with the flags that can no longer fly,” Claes said. “Kiwanis members keep one or two of these stars in our pockets to give to any veterans and first responders we see.”

Anyone can become a flag sponsor at any time of the year, van Eeten said. Flags on poles are either set into pipe holders in the ground or hung on staffs from the side of a building.

“Businesses often buy more than one flag,” she said. “We have some on display at Harmony Park in downtown Marble Falls. We have room for more there if anyone is interested.” 

Her dream is to have every business on Main Street sponsor a flag for the seven holidays. 

“Main Street is one of those places that just cries out for flags,” she said. “We have a lot on (U.S.) 281 and (RR) 1431, but think about how beautiful it would be to have Main Street lined on both sides with flags.”

Another suggestion is for subdivisions to buy flags for their entrances. Flags cannot be placed on residential property.

Wherever posted, Old Glory’s “broad strips and bright stars” will fly in “full glory … O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave” and in the Highland Lakes, thanks to the Kiwanis.

To become a sponsor in the Highland Lakes Kiwanis Club flag program, visit highlandlakeskiwanis.org/sponsors.

Memorial Day flag facts

The U.S. flag should be raised only to half-mast on the morning of Memorial Day as a symbol of mourning for those who gave their lives while serving in the military. According to a proclamation issued by President Dwight Eisenhower on March 1, 1954, at noon, the flag should be “briskly” raised to its full height in honor of all the nation’s battle heroes.

Flag history 

• The U.S. Flag Code states the flag is a living symbol. 
• A sea captain who was presented a flag in 1824 named it “Old Glory.” He took the flag with him everywhere, even hiding it from Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., preserved under glass.
• “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written in 1814. It was proclaimed the national anthem in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson. Congress solidified its status in 1931.

Flag codes

The U.S. Flag Code was created in 1923 and became law in 1942. It established that: 

• U.S. flags should not be displayed in bad weather.
• A flag should never touch anything beneath it, including water, merchandise, or the floor.
• When displayed vertically against a wall, the union, or blue field of stars, should be on the observer’s upper-left. 
• Damaged or dirty flags should be destroyed in a dignified manner (which involves a whole other set of regulations). 
• The U.S. flag should only be flown from sunrise to sunset. It may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated at night.

suzanne@thepicayune.com