BLYN — The sun shined bright for a flag retiring and veteran wreath-burning ceremony at the Bekkevar Farm in Blyn.
About 50 people gathered around a carefully stacked pile of more than 1,600 wreaths and about 1,200 retired American flags late Saturday morning.
Rows of uniformed Trail Life USA boys lined up at attention while First Officer Jeremiah Taylor set the ceremony in motion.
Troop leader Kalo Vass made opening remarks.
“A flag retirement ceremony is one of the more solemn ceremonies we have in our country,” he said.
The American flag’s symbolic representation of and commitment to freedom means it should be disposed “in the proper way of respect and honor,” he said.
“We give it the respect of a burial,” he added.
One of the members of the Clallam County Michael Trebert Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) dedicated the wreaths and flags with a prayer. A moment of silence then settled over the crowd while Dave Bekkevar lit the mound.
While the first flames flickered in the greenery, the DAR members began softly singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Members of the American Heritage Girls, who assisted with the laying out and collecting of the wreaths, also looked on.
Just that morning, the wreaths had been lying on five cemeteries across Clallam County. They were placed on the graves by the DAR and the youth organizations during National Wreaths Across America Day on Dec. 14, chapter regent Judy Tordini said.
“We love our veterans,” she said.
The DAR has been participating in National Wreaths Across America Day for the past five years, Tordini said. In the past, they would dismantle the wreaths and recycle all the parts — a process that was fairly time intensive, she said.
This year, Tordini said the Trail Life USA members suggested killing two birds with one stone by burning the wreaths at a flag retirement ceremony.
The Trail Life USA troops usually have several retirement ceremonies every year, Vass said, although “this is the largest one I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“The solemness in the event was not escaped by my emotion,” he added.
The collected Nylon flags had been accumulating at the Northwest Veterans Resource Center for the past four years, Tordini said.
While retired cotton flags are burned in Port Angeles during a Flag Day ceremony, non-cotton materials cannot be burned within city limits. Farm owners Dave and Trish Bekkevar volunteered their property for the ceremony.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” Dave said, noting that his father and grandfather, both veterans, were likely looking down at the event with pride.
The flags and wreaths were reduced to ashes. Afterward, the metal frames will be recycled and the ashes will either be buried or go to compost, in line with the DAR’s emphasis on conservation, Dave said.
Adult leaders with Trail Life USA and American Heritage Girls said they hoped the children would come away from the event with a respect for the flag and the freedom it represents.
“I’m proud to be an American,” Dave said. “This is the reason.”
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
