New Brunswick Elks Lodge Celebrates Flag Day

The New Brunswick Elks continued a time honored tradition on Thursday with its annual observance of Flag Day in front of the lodge on Livingston Ave.

B.P.O.E. Lodge #324 was joined by New Brunswick firefighters, New Brunswick police officers, and law enforcement officers from Rutgers University and Middlesex County, National Guardsmen and women, the local Catholic War Veterans, and Middlesex County Police and Firemen's Pipe and Drum.

Students from the nearby Roosevelt Elementary School waved small flags throughout the ceremony, which featured a keynote address from Mayor James Cahill.

B.P.O.E. Lodge #324 Exalted Ruler Mary Peppe said that the Elks are the only organization in the U.S. that mandates an annual observance of Flag Day.

The ceremony featured a history of the American Flag, from its roots as the Pine Flag adopted in 1775, flown by the colonies and carried at the Battle of Bunker Hill, to the final change made to the flag in 1960, when Hawaii was added in the form of the 50th star.

"Our flag is at once a history, a declaration and a prophecy," Peppe said. "It represents the American nation as it was at its birth; it speaks for what it is today; and it holds the opportunity for the future to add other stars to the glorious constellation."

Cahill said the American flag represents the principals of this nation, the likes of which make it a "beacon of liberty" for other nations to look to.

Cahill said he was grateful to the flag and all it stands for, and was glad to be able to celebrate it.

The ceremony took a moment to specifically honor four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan present, and culminated with the release of doves by Kaila's Love Doves of Woodbridge.