Date: Fri 23-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Legion-flag-Memorial

Full Text:

Telling The Story

Of `Old Glory'

Why red, white and blue? American Legion Auxiliary President Alice Saxton

(left) and American Legion member Emory T. Check explain the symbolism behind

American flag's three colors.

-Bee Photos, Evans

Holding their right hands over their hearts, Sandy Hook third graders Carey

Olsen (left), Stephen Graham and Cierra Mitchell pledge their allegiance to

the flag.

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

When American Legion Auxiliary President Alice Saxton asked the third graders

in Barbara Bigham's Sandy Hook classroom whether they liked their nicknames,

most of them groaned aloud.

Their answer was, they didn't.

"Well, you might not know it, but our American flag has a nickname it got a

long time ago in 1831, and it was so popular, it stuck," Mrs Saxton told them.

"Can you guess what it is?" she asked.

A flurry of answers showed they were on the right track.

"Grand Old Flag?" "Old Faithful?" "Old Beautiful?"

"It was Old Glory!" Mrs Saxton said and the students all replied, "Oh, yeah,

we knew that!"

In honor of Memorial Day coming up this Monday, May 26, Mrs Saxton and

American Legion member Emory T. Check were making the rounds of Newtown's

elementary schools, visiting each third grade classroom.

They and several other legion and auxiliary members would be presenting a

brief program to each group, during which they would talk about the flag and

its history, as well as discuss the symbolism behind its design.

For example, there was a reason why the colors red, white and blue were

chosen, Mrs Saxton said.

Red stands for the blood shed by those who went to war to protect our country.

White means cleanliness and purity.

Blue is the color of loyalty, "like true blue," she explained.

Most of the children knew that the 50 stars were for 50 states and the 13

stripes were for the original 13 colonies.

But they didn't know that, originally, designers of the flag had planned to

have a stripe added for each new state.

"Can you imagine a flag with 50 stripes? That would have been huge!" Mrs

Saxton said.

Mr Check led the children through the pledge of allegiance after discussing

what words like "allegiance," "republic," and "indivisible" meant.

"Hopefully, they'll retain a little of this," Mrs Saxton said afterwards,

while the children were each given a certificate stating they knew the pledge

and its meaning, a flag sticker and a comic book.

Besides Mrs Saxton and Mr Check, other legion and auxiliary members who helped

with the flag presentations were Marcia Pelillo, Molly Doersch, Boyd Saxton,

Maryann Costagliola and Jim Smith.

"We would like to thank [Assistant Superintendent] Robert Kuklis, [Middle Gate

Principal] Gary Hexom and the history teachers for their time, encouragement

and input in getting this program into the schools," Mrs Saxton said following

the program.

"We would also like to thank the persons who scheduled the appointments, along

with the teachers and children who have welcomed us into their classrooms. We

look forward to what we hope will become a long-standing, yearly program," she

added.