Scout project lets you dedicate a North Avenue flag to a loved one

March 13, 2012

The opportunity to honor military personnel and other members of the community made a new program involving the flags along North Avenue an attractive Eagle Scout project to Matt Barrett.

The sophomore at Wauwatosa West High School and member of Boy Scout Troop 111 has taken on a project that was the brainchild of the Kiwanis Club and former alderman Richard Bachman.

Community members are invited to buy a flag to dedicate to a veteran or other person, and the flag will be displayed on a light pole between 76th and 124th streets along North Avenue before being given to the purchaser as a keepsake.

To buy a flag, send a check for $100 to the Treasurer at City Hall, 7725 W. North Ave., along with your name and contact number. The money will be used to buy a gold flag post - instead of the traditional silver ones - and an American flag with the name of the person being honored on border, the Scout said. Ten dollars of each purchase will be donated to a veterans hospital or veterans charity.

"People can get them in memorial, honor of or in dedication to someone," Matt said. "They will fly for a time, (from) before Memorial Day to after Labor Day."

At the end of the season, flags will be removed and delivered by Scouts to the people who ordered the flags.

The hope is to have enough flags to cover the 126 light poles along that stretch of North Avenue. If not, the spaces will be filled in with flags that have flown in years past as part of Bachman's Flags on North Avenue project.

The first priority is to place flags near 92nd Street, where the parade marshal sits on Independence Day.

Matt called his Eagle Scout project an evolution of the effort Bachman started with wife Gloria many years ago to get flags flying along the road. Bachman has ordered three flags so his children will have a memory of their parents' dedication to the city.

"That's something that any parent can do and hand down to their kids," Bachman said.

At the end of the season, the project will be turned over to the Venturing Crew, a high school group sponsored by the Kiwanis, so it can be replicated in future summers.

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