Before there was the Manteca Chamber of Commerce’s “Flags Over Manteca” effort, there was Boy Scout Troop 462.
It was back in the mid-1950s. Troop 462 was one of two Boy Scout units in Manteca at the time. The other was Troop 465.
Troop 462 leaders approached the downtown business association at the time about drilling holes for flags and purchasing American flags for display on various holidays.
Former Troop 462 member Raymond Ballard noted the business group paid the troop for years to place and retrieve the flags.
It served as a fundraising event for the troop.
Eventually, interest in placing the flags on holidays waned.
Those flags, by the way, had 48 stars. Alaska and Hawaii were not admitted to the union as the 49th and 50th states respectively until Jan. 3, 1959 and Aug. 21, 1959.
Then in the early 1990s Troop 423 that had Barbara Moebius involved, took it upon themselves to place flags in the same holes drilled in the 1950s.
At the time, it involved less than two dozen flags with a number of them being “casket flags” that families donated to the troop to place along Yosemite Avenue.
That effort too eventually ended.
The current flag effort with 2,400 flags was launched by the chamber on 24 years ago on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks.
The chamber relies on a small army of volunteers — service groups, neighbors banning together, and even families — to place and retrieve flags on assigned sections of Yosemite, Main, Center, Maple, and around East Union Cemetery on 11 holidays throughout the year.
Several groups — including the Sunrise Kiwanis and Manteca Rotary — have been placing and retrieving flags from the start.
That said, the chamber has been coming up short with volunteers.
If you’d like to help, contact the chamber at 823-6121.
The next flag day is Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
It is also when Manteca plans on staging its first ever Veterans Day parade as a prelude to Veterans Day ceremonies at Library Park at 11 a.m.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
