Hometown Rankin - June & July 2017

Updates to the park over the years
have included a sprinkler system
covering ten acres, field lighting,
a concession building, and several
additional buildings on the property.
To fund these major expenses, the
Club constructed a 50’ long BBQ pit
and have cooked many thousands of
chicken halves to sell to the public.
They eventually turned to the annual
October Haunted House for their main
fundraiser which the club members
begin work on in March. With help from
the Boy Scouts and the First Baptist
Church Youth Group, the Club raises
thousands of dollars to give toward
and fund their various projects.
The project that Hometown Magazines
wishes to spotlight is their Memorial Flag
Field. This July 1-3, they will display 500
full-size American flags that originally
flew on the Exchange Club’s first 9/11
Memorial Flag Field.
This Club has hosted two 9/11 Memorial
Flag Fields on their park with over 4,000
full-size flags standing in a uniform grid
that Mayor Butch Lee and Sheriff Brian
Bailey, along with other volunteers,
helped implement and complete.
The flags were displayed with names
and information of those who died in
the attack of 9/11 plus soldiers who were
killed in the following war.
This July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, the 500
flags will be waving on the soccer field
park, reminding I-20 travelers of the
price of freedom. The entrance to the
parking lot is on Woodgate Drive South,
next to the Enterprise Building, for those
who want to walk through the flags.
The memorialized flags will be for
sale with pole and the original yellow
ribbon and a name tag that identified
the fallen soldier associated with the
flag. The cost is only $10. There is no
set program planned, but a concession
stand will be open for visitors.
Louise Pipitone, a forty-year member
along with husband Pat, said about the
flag display, “It’s the most rewarding
thing our Club has ever done. Truckers
have pulled off the interstate all hours
of the night to walk through the lighted
flag field, the largest in the nation. Others
have brought flowers and teddy bears
to leave by the flags.”
A special salute and thank you go out
to this band of patriotic, hard workers.
They need our participation in community
projects and “new blood in memberships,”
Mrs. Pipitone expressed. “We
need parents to teach their children to
volunteer and become active.”
Community involvement in an
organization that promotes Americanism,
patriotism, and youth, would be an
excellent means of commemorating all
the fallen on this July’s Memorial Flag
Field. The Exchange Club members urge
us all to, “Come and show respect.”
Hometown Rankin • 69