The Flag Retirement Ceremony will be held at 8 a.m. on Saturday, November 11.
The procession will assemble at 7:45 a.m. at Prichard Gate of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Bedford Street. They will march to the flagpole for a flag-raising ceremony and proceed to the place where the worn flags will be retired.
Citizens are invited to participate in the ceremony and past Concord honored citizens are especially encouraged to attend.
Drop off worn and faded flags at any of the following locations: the Town House, the Concord Police Station, Harvey Wheeler Community Center, Concord fire stations and post offices. Concord Scouts will prepare the flags for retirement.
The flag drop-off deadline is November 1.
The Flag Retirement Ceremony is a Veteran’s Day tradition that affords Concordians the opportunity to retire their American flags in a respectful way.
This local ceremony was established in 1965 by James Carroll, Francis McDonald, Bernard Rushe, Thomas Tombeno and Clark McClevin. They felt the many cemetery flags which were torn and faded from being left in place through the fall and winter months honored neither our nation’s colors nor our departed veterans. They decided that each Veteran’s Day, the worn flags would be collected by the Public Ceremonies and Celebrations Committee and retired in an appropriate manner.
