By Mark Ambrogi
Soon downtown Noblesville will be well decorated with American flags to commemorate Election Day and Veterans Day.
It’s all courtesy of the Noon Kiwanis Club of Noblesville.
Francesca Mohan, immediate past president and a member of the board of the service club, has long been involved with the project.
“We put them all around the square, the courthouse and town,” Mohan said. “We put out well over 100 flags.”
Mohan said when the flags are outside a private business they ask for a $30 donation each year to offset the cost of upkeep and their replacement.
“We just spent $400 on the purchase of new flags because you have to retire them when they get too beat up,” Mohan said. “You have to make sure they’re in good shape.”
The $30 would guarantee every time the club puts up flags for a national holiday or other special occasions, one would be hanging outside their business.
Mohan said around Memorial Day the club sells small flags that are dedicated to loved ones who have died or honor people that served the nation.
“The small flags go all around the courthouse, and they get a plaque that goes with it, saying ‘in memory’ or ‘in honor of,’ however, they want to phrase it,” Mohan said.
State Rep. Kathy Richardson (R-Noblesville), a member of the club, is in charge of the small flags.
Mohan is part of group of volunteers that places the full-sized flags out each holiday.
“I’ve hung them myself in the snow and the rain,” Mohan said. “We have a core group of four or five volunteers that hang them. We do it about 7:30 in the morning before the downtown traffic begins.”
