Community Corner

The Highest Rank In Scouting, Eagle Here He Comes

Vincenzo Florio created a American Flag retirement box for the community

 

“You people are my life and my inspiration,” the soon-to-be Eagle Scout said of his family as he unveiled his final scout project;  at once an avenue to the highest badge a Boy Scout can achieve but also a creative and dignified way to honor his country’s  most important emblem, the American flag.

Vincenzo Florio, 16, conceived, designed and built a wooden lacquer US Flag retirement box that will reside at the town Transfer Station.

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The reason?

“People don’t realize that there’s a very specific way, the right way, to retire a flag and only Boy Scouts or Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion can and people just don’t know what to do with their old flags,” he explained. “Now they don’t have to worry about that.”

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Florio unveiled the box on Flag Day – “What better day,” he asked rhetorically. And the ceremony was attended by members of his troop, scoutmaster, his family, WPCA staff, Mayor Ronald McDaniel and his “friends from the American Legion,” who donated $230 to help Florio build the box. He also received a donation from Home Depot to help create the flag retirement box.

An old flag must be burned, but in a very specific way and only by Scouts, VFW and American Legion members. The ritual involves two scouts each holding the flag over the fire while saying patriotic words, Florio explained. .

“When I found out that people didn’t know what to do and (flags) were not being (properly) retired, I came up with the box,” he said.

Besides making it through the ranks over the course of more than a decade, he had to earn 21 badges, serve 6 months in a troop leadership position, plan, develop and provide leadership in a service project for a civic organization, participate in a scoutmaster conference and successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.  

 

He excepts to complete the review process and become an Eagle Scout officially in the early fall.

 

 

 


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