Westridge Students Get a Lesson in Respecting the Flag from a Patriot Who Noticed Its Absence

The American flag had been such an important part of his life for so long that Harold Christ almost screamed out loud that day back in November when he didn’t see it.

He’d not only respectfully saluted it every day for five years, but when it was his job to make sure it was properly displayed, he came to revere it.

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Christ (pronounced KRIST), the chaplain for West Des Moines Elks Lodge No. 2752, helped the social club organize a November Hoop Shoot event in the Westridge Elementary School gymnasium.

When it came time for the event to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance,  a young boy advanced the colors — a tiny flag on a dowel stick meant to be waved at a parade or staked in a Fourth of July cake — and Christ felt his blood boil.

Veteran Sees School's Lack of Flag as His Mission to Rectify

Christ, a U.S. Navy veteran (1966-1971) who served two years at an air base in Atsugi, Japan and raised the American flag every morning, didn’t scream.

“I’m an old enough man to know better,” he said.

But he didn’t let it go either.

He took the story back to his Elks brethren. An $80 donation later, and the problem was rectified.

On Monday, hundreds of Westridge students sang patriotic songs — March is Music in the Schools Month — as Christ and Michael G. Friedel, the Lodge’s exalted ruler, presented the 6-foot by 9-foot flag.

Students With Military Parents Overseas Honored at Assembly

The presentation had added significance for 19 students, who have a military parent deployed overseas. One by one, they rose from the gymnasium floor to be recognized, soldier-like pride evident as they stood strong and straight:

• From kindergarten, Andrew Schmidt.
• From the first grade, Mary Ellen Lerg and Riley Lewis.
• From the second grade, Gretta Acheson, Gavin Frost and Makenzie Hayes.
• From the third grade, Jake Burger.
• From the fourth grade, Emma Acheson, Joey Rose, Owen Quinlan and Juliet Warren.
• From the fifth grade, Owen Lerg, Tristen Miller, Cassie Rose, Zach Meldrum, Garrett Burger and Ted Thursby.
• And from the sixth grade, Isabelle Acheson and Alexandria Powell.

That touched Christ, too, and he spent extra time with those students after the flag-presentation ceremony. He and Alexandria Powell talked about the significance of the stars — how they grew in number from 13 to 48 to 50, to signify the number of states in the union, and the  stripes — 13 of them, to symbolize the original colonies.

It bothers Christ that kids don’t always know that. It’s not just the history of the flag that Christ thinks students have forgotten, but what it symbolizes: “The rights and privileges we have in this country and what our forefathers fought for,” he said. “We fight even for people who boycott things. We fight for them to have that right.

“It brings tears to my eyes,” he said, “and it worries me that the top educators in our country are not keeping this in the textbooks.”

Westridge Principal Mary Jane Stites said the donation is "huge."

"We are  thrilled to death to have somebody who noticed it, somebody who cared and somebody who wanted to set it right," she said.