Darien Honors Flag During Annual Ceremony

DARIEN, CT — Darien marked the flag's 244th birthday during its annual Flag Day ceremony outside Town Hall on Monday.

The ceremony took place around 5 p.m., during which Lenny Hunter, Alex Hargrove, Don O'Connell and John Driscoll, four members of the VFW Post 6933 Color Guard, raised the flag on the Town Hall flagpole for a group of attendees.

According to Sueann Schorr, a U.S. Naval Reserve captain and vice chairman of the town's monuments and ceremonies commission, the ceremony offers the opportunity for old flags to be collected and properly retired, in addition to honoring the flag in general.

Schorr also offered remarks and spoke about the history and importance of both the flag and Flag Day.

"The flag has been with us in many different places all around the world, with our armed forces, with explorers," Schoor said, "so I just wanted everyone to take a few minutes to think about the importance of our flag and what it symbolizes for us, and just to remember if you have an old flag to bring it to a proper place so that it can be disposed of."

The ceremony is an annual tradition for the town, one that Schoor herself has attended for at least a decade.

"I feel like the flag is something we sort of start to take for granted," Schorr said, "because we walk by it every day and don't even see it, so this is a great opportunity to look at it and think about it and what it means. That's why I really like this ceremony."

She also hopes residents will take time this week to think about those who fight for the flag.

"Our flag is with our armed forces around the world, and they're seeing that and fighting for it," Schorr said. "It's a patch on the right arm of every single uniform, so it's something that our soldiers, sailors and airmen are fighting for every single day, so it deserves our time and thought."