Submitted by Jeff White
Each year Troops 303 & 3030 in Fishers host their semi-annual Flag Retirement at the Fishers American Legion Post 470. Occurring during the closest weekend to Veterans Day, they will have a combined Veterans Day and Flag Retirement ceremony at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The actual ceremony will last about an hour, but the Flag Retirement will continue until all flags have been respectfully retired.
The Crossroads of America Scout Band will be present in full force playing patriotic music. They are the oldest continuously operating Scout Band in America.
The public is invited to attend the ceremony. Additionally, anyone with flags to retire can drop them off at the Fishers American Legion, 9091 E. 126th St.
Scouts of any Scouting organization are welcome to attend and help retire the flags.
The American Legion wrote the National Flag code, which Troop 303 & 3030 follow, in 1923. It is due to their connection to The American Legion, with Fishers Post #470 being their charter organization, that the Troops take honoring the flag seriously. They retire and replenish flags. Their site, troop303flags.com, is mainly used to sell American Legion sourced flags to the public so that retired flags can be replaced.
Troops 303 & 3030 now handles the flags for the City of Fishers. When the call is made for them to go to half-staff, Scouts get up very early in the morning to assure that the flags go to half-staff. In the winter they take down and store flags at certain locations where they don’t fly the flags in the winter. This honor of handling the city’s flags is an honor given only to Troops 303 & 3030.
In addition to this special combined Veterans Day and Flag Day ceremonies, Troops 303 & 3030 will have a Nelson’s Chicken sale. For those from up north, you might recognize Nelson’s Port a Pit Chicken as being quite popular. In fact, it is one of the food options at Notre Dame Stadium during football games. Chicken can be purchased at troop303flags.com/shop/food-fundraiser/4. Money from the sale goes to help the Troops with the costs associated with Scouting.
Troop 303, the boy troop, was first chartered in August 2001. Troop 3030, the girl troop, first chartered this year. They meet at 7 p.m. every Wednesday at The American Legion at 9091 E. 126th St., Fishers.
If you have a boy or girl who is at least 11 years old or close to it and you want to check out the Troops, email their Scoutmasters at fishersbsascouts@gmail.com.