Moorestown Boy Scout Troop 44 held a flag retirement ceremony at the township’s First Methodist Church on April 14.
Scout Chris Bunn described the ceremony as the end of years collecting old and worn American flags and finally disposing of them properly.
“We were able to get through, I believe, two bags of American flags at the end,” he said. “We all definitely did our best to be our best selves when we were out there, following all of our codes, making sure that every flag was handled with respect. And that’s all we could really do – and I believe they (the troops) did it.”
The ceremony is about retiring flags that are no longer serviceable due to damage such as stains or tears. The preferred way to dispose of them is burning, according to the Flags USA website.
“A Scout would be given the flag, then we would fly it one more time and then fold it up,” Bunn explained, “and then once it (was) in a proper triangle, they would go up as a group and put it into the fire, salute to pay their respects and then that entire process happens again and again until we were out of flags.
“Some of the responses we got from veterans who were there … they were very happy to see the Scouts doing this so respectfully and just doing it in general, and seeing the Scouts taking the time and the care that they did, they were very happy …” said Troop 44 leader Kim Bunn, Chris’ mother.
The event was also a joint effort between the Scouts and the American Legion Post 42.
“It’s something that I feel like they will continue now that they’ve experienced it, and the troop will keep up that ceremony, so it was a good thing,” offered Gene Clark, commander of William H. Snyder Post 42.
“They would take each flag and they would actually fold it to a certain dimension, and then put that flag in the fire and then salute it … I think it’s really good for the boys.”
It took a few years for the event to happen due to logistics, such as timing and COVID, pandemic, so Chris Bunn would like to see the ceremony become an annual township tradition.
“ … We did not get through all the flags we had, so I would definitely love this to be an event where, because we had been collecting for so long and we had a lot of flags, … there will be less flags more frequently,” Bunn noted. “And just a thing where the town knows that this happens and it’s every year or every two years, depending on how long we want to do it.”
Troop 44 includes more than 30 Scouts from Moorestown and surrounding communities. Membership is open to any age-eligible boy who wants to join. For more information, visit www.troop44bsa.com.
