Welcome Home and Flag Exchange Jan. 6th

Most Pennsylvania municipalities have their reorganization meetings the first Monday in January. In Northampton Township that Monday will be extra special.

At the January 6th Northampton Township Board of Supervisors meeting there will be two special ceremonies for two military residents to kick off the meeting at 7:30PM. Both will take place prior to the Boards reorganization.

The first will be a Welcome Home Flag Exchange for Coast Guard Seaman Robert Hayes followed by a Army flag placement for deployed resident Major Jon Pavlovcak.

Hayes had deployed to Bahrain Persian Gulf from his base in Portsmouth NH back in November 2018. His mom Mary Jo and dad Mickey Hayes placed Robert’s personalized Coast Guard flag in the display where it was to stay until he returned from his deployment to exchange it. Hayes has returned stateside.

The second ceremony will be an Army flag placement for resident Army Major Jon Pavlovcak who deployed back in September. His wife Karen and two children, Kate and Jack, will place his Army flag in the display to represent his deployment where it will stay until he returns to exchange it for the US flag.

Whenever a military member resident is deployed to a hostile area Northampton places the person’s military flag in the display and when he or she returns from their deployment they have a Welcome Home where they return the military flag to the person and replace the flag in the display with a U.S. flag containing a streamer with the person’s name affixed to it. Pavlovcak will be the 91st resident honored under this program since its inception in April 2003.

the ceremonies will start at 7:30PM and both should be completed in approximately 15 to 20 minutes. The location is the Northampton Township Administration Building located 55 Township Rd. and all interested in honoring these residents are encouraged to attend.