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Field of Flags Installation Leaves North Adams

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Volunteers help pack up the more than 6,500 flags that are part of the Field of Flags installation at First Congregational Church.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The expansive display of American flags that has covered the front lawn of First Congregational Church is gone, ready for its next display in Warren, Conn.

On Friday afternoon, volunteers pulled up the thousands of small flags, setting them in plastic buckets and boxes. Later, the flags would be counted into bundles of 25.

What took a half-day to post three weeks ago was plucked in just over an hour. The Rev. Pat Kriss said she didn't believe one flag had been lost, but sadly, 11 more were added during its stay.

"Thanks for doing this, it was fantastic," said a woman as she walked by Kriss.

"That's the kind of response we've been getting," said Kriss, who had pushed for two years to get the exhibit. "One person said it was nice to live in a city where can you fly the flag."

The exhibit is unusual in that it's both patriotic and a call for peace, she said. "It's a reminder to us of the high cost of combat," she said.

"Field of Flags" is a symbol of the losses incurred during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Each flag represents a casualty. It arrived with 6,505 flags and leaves for Warren Congregational Church with 6,516.


The exhibit included a board listing the name of every American casualty of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The installation was first displayed at Somerset Congregational Church in Connecticut in 2005. The response to the 2,231 flags was overwhelming and other churches and institutions asked if they, too, could exhibit the flags. It's since traveled around the country but this was the first time it had crossed the border to Massachusetts.

There had been some concern about the display, which also includes a plaque board with the names of every serviceman and -woman lost in the conflicts, being out on the busy end of Main Street.

"Basically, I just started praying to God that I need a guardian angel," said Kriss. That angel arrived in the form of an Iraq veteran who could see the installation from his apartment window. "He told me he made it his priority to watch over it."

But residents have been respectful of the display. The comments in posted in the guest book from people around the region and as far away as Canada are laudatory, describing the exhibit as awe-inspiring, humbling and a visual reminder that freedom is never free. One individual suggested sending it to both President Obama and his challenger and former Gov. Mitt Romney to underline what is happening.

Perhaps the most affecting was a simple missive written in block letters by a youngster.

"Thank you soldiers, Love Carson"

 

Tags: american flag,   field of flags,   flags,   wars,   

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Clarksburg Sees Race for Select Board Seat

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town will see a three-way race for a seat on the Select Board in May. 
 
Colton Andrews, Seth Alexander and Bryana Malloy returned papers by Wednesday's deadline to run for the three-year term vacated by Jeffrey Levanos. 
 
Andrews ran unsuccessfully for School Committee and is former chairman of the North Adams Housing Authority, on which he was a union representative. He is also president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council.
 
Malloy and Alexander are both newcomers to campaigning. Malloy is manager of industrial relations for the Berkshire Workforce Board and Alexander is a resident of Gates Avenue. 
 
Alexander also returned papers for several other offices, including School Committee, moderator, library trustee and the five-year seat on the Planning Board. He took out papers for War Memorial trustee and tree warden but did not return them and withdrew a run for Board of Health. 
 
He will face off in the three-year School Committee seat against incumbent Cynthia Brule, who is running for her third term, and fellow newcomer Bonnie Cunningham for library trustee. 
 
Incumbent Ronald Boucher took out papers for a one-year term as moderator but did not return them. He was appointed by affirmation in 2021 when no won ran and accepted the post again last year as a write-in.
 
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