Jamestown Rotary Club honoring 100 local heroes this week with the Field of Flags at the soccer field in front of the community center.
Rotary Club member Crystal Tompkins said the display began Friday with flags placed around the field. Tompkins said the project serves as both a fundraiser and a way to increase community awareness for veterans and other influential figures.
“Each flag will represent the name that’s on that flag,” Tompkins said. “It’s just a very honorable ceremony, and it represents to us just the thanks that we give back to our community to honor our heroes in our lives.”
Member Kara Brannon said the soccer field lights stay on at night to keep the display illuminated for visitors who wish to walk through the flags.
“It’s just been a community awareness,” Brannon said. “Once we got the word out, our community just always comes together for any cause.”
Brannon said the club typically sells out all 100 flags each year as the community pulls together for the event. The flags represent a wide range of individuals, including teachers, doctors, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel.
“It could be a veteran, it could be a teacher, it could be a doctor, it could be firefighter, EMS, just anybody that’s had an impact in your life,” Brannon said. “We don’t really focus on one person. It’s just the heroes that’s in our life and in our community.”
The club sells medallions for $35 that are hung on the flags to identify the specific hero being honored. Tompkins said the week concludes with a closing ceremony where speakers are featured and the names of every honoree are read aloud.
“It’s very humbling to know that we have 100 people in our county that is honored by what they have done to make somebody else’s life better, whether it’s a veteran, whether it’s a first responder,” Tompkins said. “It’s just a humbling experience and you just sit down there and think of how patriotic some of these people are, our veterans, and some what they’ve done for our country.”
Tompkins said the organization also sponsors two Interact clubs at local high schools to encourage young people to participate in civic service.
“I believe that in this day and time, community service or civil clubs are falling by the wayside and our young people don’t realize how important stuff like this is,” Tompkins said. “And I think it needs to be brought to attention about civic clubs, organizations, volunteer clubs. That’s what makes good leaders of our nation and our country.”