Flag tradition continues at Schoharie Elementary School

SCHOHARIE - For the first time in several years, students from Schoharie Elementary School helped place flags on local Veterans graves on May 14 in observance of Memorial Day.

With guidance from Nancy Wolfe and the Schoharie Unit #1261 American Legion Auxiliary, a group of about 20 students staked nearly 200 American flags in the Lutheran Cemetery behind the Parrot House in Schoharie.

“When New York State shut down in March 2020, the sixth grade Flag Group stopped raising/lowering the flag at Schoharie Elementary School, but the American Legion Auxiliary continued without students in the placing of flags in the cemetery each May,” said Wolfe, who owns The Wolfe’s Laundry Den on Main Street in Schoharie. “Students didn’t help with the placing of flags until this year, and their assistance, along with family, friends, school staff and community members, is invaluable.”

Wolfe became involved with the sixth grade Flag Group at Schoharie Elementary School in 1997, after attending her oldest son’s Moving-Up Day ceremony. She reached out to former Schoharie Elementary School Principal Paul Seamans, a Vietnam Veteran, who started the Flag Group in 1991.

Being a member of the Color Guard came with the responsibility of raising the American Flag over the elementary school each morning and lowering it in the afternoon, as well as learning how to properly fold it. The response each year was so great that there were several students who shared the duties each month. 

Since June of 1998, the Schoharie American Legion Auxiliary has given out more than 1,000 certificates of appreciation to each student that participated in the program. In addition, an Americanism Award is given to a student recognized by the school principal for their outstanding contribution to the program.

The award was renamed the Paul E. Seamans Americanism Award after his retirement in 2005. 

Sixth grade teacher Steve Usher was the program’s contact person until 2020, when the Flag Group was sidelined due to COVID-19. 

In the summer of 2023, teacher Nancy Anderson reached out to Wolfe to come to the school and work with the fifth grade enrichment program. They folded flags and discussed facts and history about the American flag.

Anderson also restarted the Flag Group, now working with fifth grade students.

As Memorial Day nears, Schoharie Elementary School students are doing their part to remember the service and sacrifice of local Veterans.

“The flags usually go in the cemetery about a week or so before Memorial Day,” said Wolfe. “They look so nice that we usually leave them there until September, when they are removed before the bad weather sets in.”