Flag from Washington, D.C. to fly over PMLC

  • Students at Pine Mountain Learning Center prepare to raise the new flag.

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    Students at Pine Mountain Learning Center prepare to raise the new flag.

  • When the new flag was raised, the Pine Mountain Learning Center students launched fearlessly into singing The Star Spangled Banner.

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    When the new flag was raised, the Pine Mountain Learning Center students launched fearlessly into singing The Star Spangled Banner.

  • Students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at Pine Mountain Learning Center.

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    Students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at Pine Mountain Learning Center.

  • The school’s tattered old flag was to be retired.

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    The school’s tattered old flag was to be retired.

  • Gabriel Wilde reads his speech, with scouts from troop 242.

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    Gabriel Wilde reads his speech, with scouts from troop 242.

  • Elana Martinez received a science fair award.

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    Elana Martinez received a science fair award.

  • Assemblymember Shannon Grove, PMLC Principal Carey Carpenter  and Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s aide Keenan Hochschild

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    Assemblymember Shannon Grove, PMLC Principal Carey Carpenter and Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s aide Keenan Hochschild

By Patric Hedlund, with photos by Dionne Bolton and P. Hedlund

An impressive array of red, white and blue ensembles were worn by children and adults on Friday, April 26 for the Pine Mountain Learning Center’s flag ceremony.  The school’s old flag had become tattered, and was to be retired.

Assemblymember Shannon Grove arrived with her assistant Javier Reyes to meet the public charter school’s students and to deliver gifts from the California state capital.
Grove passed out state commendations to PMLC Science Fair finalists and presented a California flag that had flown over the capital building in Sacramento.

Boy Scout Gabriel Wilde read an essay about how to show respect for the American flag and how to care for flags that are retired from service.

“And now,” he read, “our great old flag is being retired. I came here in kindergarten and the first day I was here, I thought to myself, ‘What a great flag.’ This flag has seen many years, but now must be retired. So…next time you see a flag, do not think of it as ‘some old flag,’ think of it as a symbol of power, of freedom, of unity and of America.”

Keenan Hochschild from U.S. Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s office brought a beautiful, big flag that had flown over the capital building in Washington, D.C. home of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

The children showed a joyful enthusiasm, pledging the flag with gusto and then launching without hesitation into singing The Star Spangled Banner.

This is part of the May 3, 2013 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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