By AMY BALTODANO
Hays Post

The Hays Kiwanis Club’s flag project has been around since 2000 and is going strong, planting patriotism across the community several holiday weekends each year.

“We heard about a flag project, and we checked into it and the board decided to go ahead with it,” said co-chair Jerry Ubert, a member for 31 years.

When the club began the project, it started with 71 flags and three routes. Today, the group plants 1,000 flags along 20 routes.

The Hays Kiwanis Club modeled their idea after the Elkhart Kiwanis Flag Project. According to Ubert, there are “at least a dozen other communities across the state that participate in the Flag Project and all have had success with it.”

Kiwanis members place flags in yards on five different holidays: Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Veteran’s Day.

“The other factor is we provide the service so they get more bang for the buck, so we put the flag out and they show the patriotism,” Ubert said.

The project has a number of different businesses who are interested and will be participating in this event. On Friday, Eagle Radio of Hays donated $1,400 to the Kiwanis Club to support the Flag Project.

On Memorial Day, tune into Mix103 FM from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a special Memorial Day Program, hosted by Nick Jonas.

“It’s just to show pride in the community. The nice deal about our deal is for the price, a person doesn’t have to go out to buy a flag, they don’t have to buy a closet rod, they don’t have to  remember what day or anything we take care of all that,” Ubert said.

They club will put up the flag at sunrise and take it down at sunset. They usually have around 40 volunteers to help out.

To volunteer or for more information, call Ubert at James Motor Co, (785) 625-3481.