July 5, 2023
Honoring service
Around Town
WSD students earn fire truck rides to school for outstanding attendance. Pg. 3 New principals take over in the WSD. Pg.3
Flip for Features
Recipe, Movie & Sudoku. Pg. F-1 CLASSIFIEDS AND HOME & GARDEN. Pg. F-2 /F-3
Submitted photo St. Charles County employees Stacey Rafferty (left), Department of Public Health, and Crystal McMillan, Highway Department, break for a photo during the Flag Day collection event. Both are U.S. Army veterans.
The St. Charles County Veterans Best Practices Working Group fosters an employment-friendly environment for veterans who continue to serve the community By Brett Auten They come from all over and can be any size. Each is handled with care, delivered with respect and then nobly disposed of. The St. Charles County Veterans Best Practices Working Group reached a milestone this Flag Day as more than 10,000 old and worn American flags have been collected over the past seven years through the group’s flag collection event and collection boxes. “The American Flag is the symbol of our nation. It’s important to us to ensure these flags are disposed of respectfully, because that also represents the respect we have for our country,” Dennis Wiss, a Marine Corps veteran and member of the Veterans Best
Practices Working Group and also director of St. Charles County Regional Airport-Smartt Field, said. “We get a lot of ‘thank yous’ from the public because often, they are not really sure what to do.” Flags collected on Flag Day and throughout the year are donated to the AMVETS veterans service organization in St. Peters, which holds a formal flag retirement ceremony each September. The U.S. Flag Code calls for flags that are no longer fit for display to be retired and disposed of in a ceremonial burning. Rules on how to properly fly the flag were established in1923, when the National Flag Conference met in Washington. Its members created the Flag Code, which states that “the flag rep-
resents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.” The American Legion passed a resolution about flag retirement ceremonies in 1937, and have been an important ritual ever since. The U.S. flag is considered such a sacred symbol that burning it in an undignified manner constitutes desecration. That’s why the ceremonies are held in a specific manner. Every year on June 14, Americans celebrate Flag Day. Not surprisingly, it’s considered the most appropriate day to hold flag disposal ceremonies, which are often held at night. During an American Legion ceremony, participants stand aligned in two parallel rows about 20 See ’SERVICE’ page 2
Serving St. Louis, St. Charles and Lincoln Counties | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 25 No. 27 | 636-379-1775
Moore On Life, Lifestyle & Crossword. Pg. F-4
Weather FRIDAY Partly Cloudy 85/64 SATURDAY Partly Cloudy 86/68 SUNDAY Scattered Showers 89/67
READ US ONLINE!