SEQUIM — The patriotic efforts of the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club adorned Sequim with American flags on Memorial Day.
For more than a decade, Rotarians’ Flag Subscription Program has honored fallen service men and women, veterans and the country while supporting community groups across the area.
“This is how we’re able to do what we do,” club member Ann Flack said.
Each year, the club raises about $20,000 from subscriptions to support the Sequim Food Bank, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim Wheelers and other local and international service groups and projects.
This year, Rotarians are giving $20,000 in Sequim High School scholarships with funds from the flags.
Flags go out Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and Presidents Day.
The cost is $40 per year, and $25 for each additional flag. Subscriptions are pro-rated depending on time of registration.
To register, visit sequimsunrise rotary.org, click on “forms” and mail the form and check to Sequim Sunrise Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 3482, Sequim, WA 98382.
Sequim High School’s Interact Club helps Rotarians recruit subscriptions and place flags, Flack said.
Sequim city staff post flags along Washington Street, too.
Longtime volunteer and Rotarian Charlie Johnson said they store the club’s 664 flags and metal poles in a storage unit donated by club member Tom Schaafsma.
Sequim’s flag subscription service was adapted from a program in Texas by late Rotarian Jim Pickett, club president Bill Benedict said.
He added that subscriptions are down slightly and they’re looking to expand further into their current routes, and more into Dungeness and to subdivisions west of Sequim.
Sequim Sunrise Rotary meets at 7 a.m. weekly on Friday mornings at the Dungeness River Nature Center.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
