Butler County Historical Society gifted America250 commemorative flag
The Butler County Historical Society has a new commemorative flag to display.
The historical society accepted a special Betsy Ross America250 U.S. flag made by Annin Flagmakers on Monday, May 18, in a ceremony at the Senator Walter Lowrie House in Diamond Park.
The flag was gifted by WoodmenLife, a financial planning and consulting company, as part of its Patriotism project, which has delivered more than 4 million flags to community organizations across the country since 1947.
“We’re collecting items throughout the country as part of the celebration and closing them in a time capsule,” said Mickey Pennington, the community outreach adviser in WoodmenLife’s Northeast region.
Butler was one of 10 stops on the tour — which included locations in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Florida — leading up to Flag Day on June 14.
In exchange for the flag, the historical society gifted WoodmenLife a commemorative tile of the American Bantam Car Company, which was chosen from 135 other car manufacturers to build the Jeep for the U.S. government in 1940.
“Although the Bantam factory may be lost, the story and the history of Bantam’s historic achievement is preserved through all of us here in Butler,” said Mackenzie Herold, executive director of the historical society.
The commemorative flag will be displayed at the historical society. WoodmenLife’s time capsule with items collected from across the country will be archived later at its headquarters in Omaha, Neb.
“They’ll be displayed and tell the uniqueness of each community across the country that we travel to and as a sign of unity, we’ll put (the commemorative tile) in that time capsule,” Pennington said.
