Flag guy brightens retirement center
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POLSON — They call him “the flag guy.” As he travels around the country and overseas, he carries American flags to display. Preferring to remain anonymous, one of the flag guy’s most recent service projects was at the St. Joseph Retirement Community.
“The story is not about me, it’s about the flags,” he said.
After getting permission from the staff, the flag guy, a Vietnam veteran, placed 588 American flags in the lawn and courtyard of the retirement center for the residents to enjoy just in time for the Fourth of July. It took him two hours to complete the design. Although he planned “a great big heart,” the ground was too hard so he placed them in lines.
According to employees at the retirement community, he displays flags in memory of military troops who served in Vietnam The flag guy has been carrying and displaying flags for 40 years.
The flag man added, “I do this because it makes me happy.”
Resident A. R. “Pete” Winter noticed the flags when he returned from an outing on the Fourth of July.
“Real flashy,” he said.
“Oh, my, yes, I was very impressed,” resident Rita Senkler said.
Senkler explained that the flagman also decorated the inner courtyard of the building with many more flags. Residents sitting or reading in the sunshine could enjoy the flags waving and fluttering in the breeze.
“Each flag has a voice,” the flag guy noted.
The flag guy travels with flags in the trunk of his car. He’ll put three or four dozen out at a veteran’s memorial, and he donated a dozen flags in St. Ignatius because they didn’t have enough for the graves of some of the older veterans.
He’s put flags on wheelchairs all over America, the flag guy said.
Whatever his name, the flagman and his patriotic display brought the spirit of the Fourth of July to the retirement community and to walkers, runners and drivers passing on the street.
