The Cub Scouts Burned Flags on Tuesday

By Doug Graves © 2007

When the American flag is burned, the average American knows that in some parts of the world it is an act of desecration by groups wanting to thumb their noses at the United States. Those of us over 35 might remember Chicago Bears outfielder and former Marine Rick Monday snatching an American flag from two men trying to burn it in protest at Dodger Field in 1976.
But when the Boy Scouts and the Cub Scouts burned flags on Tuesday, September 11 in Hanover Township it was done with the highest honors and great dignity. The Scouts were the hosts at a ceremonial retirement of old American Flags. They also invited the public and local leaders to join them for a Patriot’s Day remembrance of 9/11.
Older Boy Scouts taught Cub Scouts how to fold the flag in the triangular shape reminiscent of the Revolutionary War soldier’s three cornered hats. Altogether the Scouts received 120 flags from the community to properly dispose of them.
Scout Master Mike Caffrey of Troop 352 conducted the ceremony. “Remember the valiant heroes who gave their lives to help each other,” he said to the crowd of approximately 125.
Father Carmen Bolock, chaplain for Boy Scout Troop 362 and for the Nancy Run Fire Department said a prayer.
State Senator Pat Browne briefly spoke to the somber group. “We were all with them on 9/11,” he said.
Steve Dashe, Cathy Schneible and J. Schrader played patriotic music for the late afternoon occasion. The crowd sang as the musicians played “God Bless America,” “America the Beautiful,” and “This Land is My Land.”
Ryan Neel, an Easton High School senior and aspiring professional musician, sang the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Justin Amann, 14 a student at Liberty High School sang “Amazing Grace.”
Keynote speaker and 9/11 rescue responder Jim Sorenfon, a retired New York City fireman but then working as a fire training officer in the World Trade Center, was at home when he got the call saying “We’ve been hit.”
He said he got in his car and drove into Manhattan. By the time he got there the first tower had collapsed. “All I could do was to become a fireman again and start to help.”
He reminded the boys that all Americans have the duty to uphold the Constitution and that can be done in many was, but to him it meant helping people when they need it in what ever way you can.
“We were covered in cement dust, our mouths choked and our eyes burning,” he said. “I remember a woman, up to her ankles in dust, came with bottles of water and washed the cement out of the men’s eyes. There was a nun standing at Liberty and Church giving out sandwiches.”
Bethlehem Township resident Heather Barbosa released 21 white pigeons to represent a salute to fallen heroes. The owner of “Say It With Doves” said she performs her tribute free for the annual ceremony. She also provides the same service free for the families of service men and women who have been killed in combat.
Boy Scout Devon Dominici, 16, a sophomore at Bethlehem Catholic High School, read “Autobiography of a Flag.”
Scout leader and Bethlehem business man James Smith received the flags as they were passed to him hand to hand by Cub Scouts. Smith then ceremoniously placed each flag in the fires blazing from one of the two 50-gallon steel barrels set up for the ceremony. Black, acrid smoke from many flags made of synthetic material billowed into the darkening sky.

The Keeper of the Mound

Doug Graves (Copyright 2007)

As war memorials go they don’t come any more unassuming-- but this one gets some first class, loving care from a guy with a big heart.
The story of the humble memorial is the story of how, in 1945, the patriotic impulse of some boys and girls has been a bright thread woven into the fabric of the neighborhood’s history. This colorful tapestry has spanned generations, binding the community together with what Abraham Lincoln called, “the mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land . . .”
Charles Blatnik, 56, has been cutting the grass on the tiny wedge of property at the intersection of Willow Park Road and Freemansburg Avenue for 42 years. And he does it for free.
“I do it because nobody else does,” said Blatnik. “When I was a Cub Scout I used to come here on Memorial Day for ceremonies.”
“When I was about 14, I noticed that the grass at the memorial was about knee high,” said Blatnik. “I cut the grass and have been doing it ever since.”
The small park is across the street from Blatnik’s Bethlehem Township home.
The steel sign is getting rusty and the paint is starting to lift, but the letters are still perfectly legible. It is fitted into a stainless steel frame mounted on steel posts. It is shaded by two honey locust trees that host an ancient but vigorous poison ivy vine. A weathered three-by-four foot national ensign adorns the sign, its staff fastened to the rusting steel sign post. Smaller American flags flutter from sticks stuck in the ground amid red and white geraniums at the base of the memorial.
Geraniums also line the broad steps leading from the street up to the memorial. The steps were laid in about six years ago by James Wiedl as a community service project for his Eagle Scout badge according to Michael Faccinetto, Scout Master of Troop 347.
“I added some flowers,” said Blatnik. “I also put up the flags.”
According to Charlotte Rzepiela, a leader in the local Girl Scout organization, the memorial started out as a remembrance ceremony at Sacred Heart Catholic Church attended by scouts from Girl Scout Troop 44 and Boy Scout Troop 347. She was a Girl Scout in 1937. Shortly after the war ended there was a sign kept at the church with World War II veterans’ names on it. Eventually, under the leadership of Josephine Sakovics, since deceased, a memorial was erected on the current site and the sign was moved to the new location.
“That was done in the early fifties, probably ’52 or ’53,” she said.
“The Scouts then would have a little parade from the church down the street to the memorial site on Memorial Day [then called Decoration Day]”, she said. “A Girl Scout would recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and a Boy Scout would recite ‘In Flanders Fields’.”
Mary Vanya, director of the Girl Scout Service Unit, said, “My aunt, Ilona Romanell, read ‘Boys on the Honor Roll’ at the first memorial service in 1945.”
“Since the honor roll was first put up” said Rzepiela, “the Memorial Day programs have been sponsored by Girl Scout [now Cadette] Troop #44.”
“When it was first put up,” Rzepiela said, “it had the names of all of the people who served in World War II. But the sign was hit by cars three times so the last time we put it up we left the names off and just had the dedication painted on it. That was 55 years ago.”
“We call it ‘the mound’,” said Rzepiela. “We call Charlie the ‘Keeper of the Mound.”
“On the Sunday before or after Memorial Day the Scouts from Sacred Heart Catholic Church do a parade here, and Father King says a prayer,” said Blatnik. “I have a sound system I set up for the occasion.”
Recently Blatnik had surgery on his shoulder and has not been able to mow the grass. He said Bethlehem Township personnel have volunteered to help until he is feeling better.