'People's Flag' to be rededicated

Oh, say. That Star-Spangled Banner will wave over Fostoria for years to come. "The People's Flag," located at the top of the city's Midblock underpass, was dedicated on June 14, 2012, and a recent financial campaign to keep it in place at about $1,975 per year had boosted the Fostoria Flag Fund to more than $44,000 as of Wednesday, Fostoria Flag Committee Member Diane Lind said. With the financing in good shape, a 10th-anniversary celebration and rededication of the 20-by-30-foot flag -- actually, four of them rotate at the top of the pole that rises 80 feet out of the ground -- is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, at the green space beside Hoening & Son Funeral Home, at the intersection of Tiffin and Wood streets. Those attending are asked to take lawn chairs for seating. "It's an opportunity to thank the original (Fostoria Flag) committee and the current committee for all of their hard work and to salute everybody who helped with donations to get that flag that we're all so proud of," Mayor Eric Keckler, who serves on the 11-member committee, said. Keckler said speakers will include Philip Wolfe, vice president and historian of the Findlay-based John Hancock Chapter of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and local historian Leonard Skonecki. Keckler said representatives of the Hancock Chapter recently spoke at a Fostoria City Council meeting and provided a donation to the flag fund. Diane Lind, also a member of the Fostoria Flag Committee, said a "very special announcement" regarding the flag will be made at the ceremony. "I think it's going to make people very, very happy," she said. "It's something that we've been working on for the past few months." The project of 10 years ago has resulted in a staple of the community at the confluence of U.S. Route 23 and Ohio routes 199 and 12, the flag committee members said. "Every time we drive down that underpass and see that slight wave of motion, it's like, 'Hello!'" Lind said. "It welcomes you. it calls you." "When you come up the Midblock underpass, or in the evening if you're coming from the east, headed west, and the sun's at the right angle, that flag is there, in the wind. But, for me, I walk out that back door of the city building every day, and, still, I stop sometimes just to look at that flag. It's just such a source of pride," Keckler said. "I know, with what people could afford, they wanted to be part of putting that flag there," Keckler continued. "It's really cool to see it every day. I don't take it for granted. I'll just stop every once in a while to stare at that flag." Lind acknowledged that she put considerable work into the campaign, but she said the nature of it was its own biggest selling point. "People have read about it and contacted us," she said. "I've constantly been on social media, posting things. We sent out letters to everyone and I followed up on the letters. It's just been a wonderful campaign because it's a project that the people believe in. They did 10 years ago and they still believe. Patriotism is in Fostoria."