Some extra ado for red, white and blue

Large crowd, talk of patriotism mark Waubeka's Flag Day revelry

By LAWRENCE SUSSMAN lsussman@journalsentinel.com Posted: June 13, 2004

Free Flag Day Greeting ECards

Waubeka - A renewed sense of patriotism seemed to grip many of the roughly 8,000 people who attended Flag Day ceremonies in Waubeka Sunday afternoon.

Flag Day   Photo/Karen Sherlock Parade-goers run for cover as rain falls during the Flag Day Patriotic Parade in Waubeka, Sunday. The parade featured more than 100 entries, including local high school bands, area fire departments, Scouts and 4-H members, equestrian units and floats. Photo/Karen Sherlock A bust Bernard J. Cigrand, Flag Day founder, stands outside the Americanism Center. Photo/Karen Sherlock Richard Lang, a U.S. Navy veteran from Waunakee, salutes the flag during Flag Day festivities in Waubeka on Sunday. Waubeka is recognized as the town where Flag Day originated. Quotable I feel that people are more patriotic. People have been given a wake-up call by forces outside our country that don't value freedom. - Peggy Hamill , Brookfield

The events lasted more than three hours and included three flyovers by the Commemorative Air Force, based in Waukesha, a cannon blast, patriotic speeches and a parade with more than 100 entries.

A brief downpour at the start of the parade hardly seemed to interfere with the festival.

Jack Janik, president of the National Flag Day Foundation, said that only in 1998 - the year of Wisconsin's 150th birthday - could Janik remember more people turning out for the flag festivities.

The event is sponsored by the foundation.

Janik attributed the bigger crowd to the just-completed week of national mourning for President Reagan and the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

Both events captured the nation's attention, with the liberation of Europe and the fall of communism being mentioned and celebrated in remembrances last week and earlier this month.

"I just think that patriotism is just flowing out," Janik said.

Origins in Waubeka

Today is the actual observance of Flag Day. The event originated on June 14, 1885, when Bernard J. Cigrand, a teacher at the Stony Hill School in Waubeka, had students write essays on what the flag meant to them.

On June 14, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide observance of Flag Day.

The tradition of writing essays about the flag continues to be part of the Flag Day celebration in Waubeka.

Heather Modra, 16, of Ozaukee High School set the tone for the event with her winning essay on what the flag means to her.

"When talking about the flag," she said in reading her essay, "I am reminded of all of the soldiers that humbly traded their lives for the freedom of their children, their husbands or wives, their mothers and fathers and for people that they didn't even know."

Peggy Hamill of Brookfield said this was her third Flag Day parade, and: "I feel that people are more patriotic. People have been given a wake-up call by forces outside our country that don't value freedom."

Hamill's son marched in the parade.

The Flag Day event in Waubeka is important to residents in the entire region, said Diane Lipscomb of nearby Fredonia, who attended the parade.

"Nobody's heard of Waubeka. It's put us on the map," she said.

For the first time this year, as many adults as children reached for the American flags that state Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend) passed out from her parade float, and she said that surprised her.

There seems to be "a renewed respect for what it means to have American freedom in our daily lives," she said.