Volunteers raise flags and reflect at Mount Sinai park on Memorial Day
Jake DeBlasio, 15, of Boy Scout Troop 454, at the event in Mount Sinai on Monday. Credit: James Carbone
Flags representing Maine, Hawaii and all the states between them rose once again at Mount Sinai’s Heritage Park on Memorial Day to honor the nation and the soldiers who have died defending it.
The event, organized by Mount Sinai resident Fred Drewes and first held in 2010, featured flags from all 50 states, U.S. territories, military branches, the District of Columbia and Long Island towns such as Brookhaven and Riverhead, as well as earlier iterations of the American flag. The flags are displayed every year on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day.
Volunteers, mostly Boy Scouts from local troops, installed the flags along the park’s Avenue of America on Monday morning for the observance from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mount Sinai's event was among numerous parades and ceremonies across Long Island.
“I think one of the important things is they [the Scouts] understand what it is to be in this great country we live in, and the process of how the country grew and why we stand here today,” said John Lamparter, 16, assistant senior patrol leader with Troop 454 of Terryville, who frequently volunteers for the event.
Residents strolling along the walkway stopped to thank the Scouts for their efforts.
Kathy Carley, a retired elementary school teacher from Rocky Point, thought about how the country came to be as she stopped to read plaques in front of the state flags.
Members of Boy Scout Troop 454 from Terryville at Heritage Park in Mount Sinai for the Parade of Flags event on Memorial Day. Credit: James Carbone
“It’s a connection to our great history as the United States. From where we started to where we are today,” said Carley, who wore a scarf bearing an American flag design and was joined by her husband, Patrick, a Vietnam War veteran.
“We’ve always been very proud of our nation,” Kathy Carley said. “We always have a flag outside our home.”
Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.
