The Medford Sunrise Rotary organizes the Burlington County Field of Honor each year to honor those who served – and still serve – their country. Rotarians and volunteers will erect more than 350 full-size American flags at Medford’s Freedom Park on Friday.
Members of the Medford Sunrise Rotary and community volunteers will erect more than 350 full-size American flags on flag poles in perfectly symmetrical rows at the township’s Freedom Park on Friday, May 23.
Medallions will be placed on flags with details of nominated “heroes” and the Burlington County Field of Honor will remain through May 31. The Rotary is a charitable organization that organizes the field of honor each year to honor those who served – and still serve – their community and our country.
“Memorial Day, it is not the day that commemorates the beginning of summer fun,” according to the Rotary website. “It is a solemn day set aside each year to remember with humble gratitude and pride those hometown heroes who have served in uniform, many of whom paid the ultimate price for our country’s freedom.”
The Field of Honor began as a community project to help people grasp how many lives were lost on 9/11. The first “Healing Field” was the idea of Colonia Flag Company, which donated 3,031 flags – one for each life lost on 9/11 – for display in a Utah park. Some 250,000 people came out to experience the serenity of walking through flags flying as a living memorial, according to the Rotary International website.
Since then, Rotary clubs across the nation have staged their own Fields of Honor to acknowledge those who demonstrate “Service Above Self.” The first county field went up in 2019.
The Field of Honor is open day and night from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through the Friday after. Other than paying for the flags, all proceeds from the county Field of Honor go to charitable activities sponsored by the Rotary, with a special emphasis on those that help veterans and the Rotary Peace Centers to help train future leaders in peace and conflict resolution.
Previous beneficiaries have included:
- Woods ‘n’ Water
- Tunnels to Towers Foundation
- Operation Yellow Ribbon
- Semper Fido
- Fisher House Foundation
The local Field of Honor event will also start the Friday before Memorial Day, when volunteers from around the community will arrive at Freedom Park to help Rotarians place hundreds of full-size flags. Each is manufactured in the U.S. and has attached to it a commemorative medallion – a collector’s item with a new design each year – to tell the story of a hometown hero.
Most medallions are sponsored by friends and family and some are placed by event sponsors whose contributions make the occasion possible.
The Rotary recognizes citizens from the county who were killed in action in conflicts dating back to World War I with their own medallions. To volunteer or learn more about the Rotary, go to www.MedfordSunriseRotary.org or join a breakfast at 7:15 a.m. any Wednesday at the PopShop on Main Street.
