Flags around town a community service

Paul Bloch posts a flag in front of the Moniteau County Courthouse on May 20, 2019. Members of the Lion's Club gather for support.
Paul Bloch posts a flag in front of the Moniteau County Courthouse on May 20, 2019. Members of the Lion's Club gather for support.

Soon, the streets will be filled with U.S. flags blowing in the wind. The assembly is the product of the patriotic work of the California Lions Club.

Area businesses along Buchanan Street, Route 87 and a few others pay $35 each year for the organization to provided the service.

"We put flags out all year long," president Sarah Jones said. "It's our biggest project that we do each year."

The holidays include Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Patriot's Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day. During a presidential election year, additional days are added.

Jones said the service makes the organization good money, although a lot of the funds go toward maintaining the flags.

At 6 a.m., committee chairman Paul Bloch and five other members set out to over 100 locations to place the flags. Later that evening, the group goes back to take them down.

The project began at least 45 years ago with a dissolved organization, the California Jaycees, Bloch said. The Lions Club took over so it would continue.

The organization's mission is to support local projects such as Relay for Life. On a national level, they support programs to improve vision and to confront juvenile diabetes.

"Those dollars from the participants in the flag program help pay for all that," Bloch said.

Flags are also placed on lamp posts around the courthouse and City Hall through a different project with the organization.

In partnership with the Burgers' Foundation, flags are posted just before Memorial Day and remain through Veterans Day.

"We don't make any money off of those," Bloch said. "That's just a community service that we provide."

Bloch said he believes people enjoy seeing the flags up.

"I think it shows that as a community we're proud of our country," Bloch said. "The flag symbolizes a patriotism I think we should all have, and I think we all do."