International Flags Decorate Bridge

By Michelle Warren, The Chronicle

July 6, 2021

WILLIMANTIC — After seeing American flags displayed throughout the town of Sprague, Willimantic Rotary Club Vice President Tim DeVivo had an idea.

While playing tennis with a friend, he mentioned the idea of displaying flags on the Thread City Crossing, also known as the Frog Bridge, representing where the immigrants in town had come from.

From there, a project was born.

A few weeks ago, members of the Willimantic Rotary Club hung flags on the bridge representing 19 countries and one U.S. territory — Puerto Rico.

“There are only 20 poles so we did our best to represent as many people as we could think of,” DeVivo said.

The flags are from places that people immigrated to Windham from and countries the Rotary Club has done projects in.

“It took 14 months from the first day I thought of it until the day we got them up on the bridge,” DeVivo said.

Flags representing the following countries were hung, in addition to Puerto Rico: the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Italy, Poland, France, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Great Britain, India, Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Spain, Greece, Tanzania, Ukraine and Palau, which is in Micronesia.

DeVivo said the project is a way to celebrate the diversity of the community, which has many immigrants.

“I sort of looked at it as being united and that’s also part of the Rotary’s creed, ‘Service Above Self,’” he said.

DeVivo said the project started before all of the controversy regarding flags in town and is not related to that situation.

Local activists have requested various flags be flown on poles outside town hall, and town officials decided to do so.

DeVivo said his idea was a “feel-good” one and the Rotary Club members thought it was a great idea.

Willimantic Rotary Club President Angela Smart said the club initially wanted to have the flags flying to coincide with the club’s 100th anniversary on April 1 and ending in October.

However, the flags were backordered, so they weren’t put up until last month.

The plan is to keep the flags up through October and not during the winter months because of the possibility of becoming tattered.

Smart said the flags are a way to recognize the work the WIllimantic chapter of the club does.

“We’re a big organization doing a little part here,” she said.

One of the flags, the Palau flag, was flown because the Rotary Club did a book and clothing drive in the country.

Club members were also involved with drilling wells in Tanzania and Guatemala.

Former Windham first selectman Michael Paulhus as well as David Walencewicz participated in the project in Tanzania.

Former mayor and current town council member Ernest Eldridge, who is a Rotary Club member, spearheaded a project to provide hurricane relief to residents in Puerto Rico.

DeVivo said, currently, the group is working on a mission of the international chapters to eradicate polio.

“We fundraise,” he said. “We give our money for other people to do good things.”

Members put up the flags the weekend before Flag Day, June 14.

“It seems like so long ago,” DeVivo said, referring to the day the flags were flown.

He said the most challenging aspect of the project was finding proper brackets for the flags, noting the poles are customized and there was one size bracket they didn’t feel was strong enough.

Rotary Club members purchased the flags, poles and brackets with the help of funding from the Leo J. and Rose Pageau Trust.

Smart said the trust gave the group $5,000 that was used for the project and the club kicked in some of its own funding as well.

The club purchased the flags from Flag Themes, a Pomfret company.

The town purchased the brackets and flag poles so that they would be uniform to the brackets and flag poles already being used on Main Street.

In addition to the flags on the bridge, the club also purchased about 20 additional American flags to be displayed on Main Street.

Follow Michelle Warren on Twitter - @mwarrentc.

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