Flag-raising ceremony honors veterans at Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival
The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival held a special flag-raising ceremony in honor of President’s Day and those who have served our country.
News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay was out at the fair and tells us what this ceremony means to our local veterans.
“I’m just very excited to see the American flag rise 80 feet in the air,” Elvin Murillo told News Channel 3 while waiting for the flag ceremony to start.
American Legion Post 739 in Indio raised our beautiful American flag into a clear blue sky, while a crowd of people watched.
“The flag itself means so much to America not just to veterans but to veterans especially it has something special because we signed that paper saying we’ll give our lives up for this country," USN veteran and Post Commander 739, Steven Waggoner said.
During the ceremony, Supervisor Manuel Perez honored those who have served our country.
“The reason we have this freedom is because people have fought wars and have died and paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be here today,” Perez said.
This flag ceremony is a relatively new tradition at the fair.
“It’s only in its second year and the beautiful thing about this is that we didn’t have this flag pole here two years ago and the Economic Development Agency and our veteran's department came together with my office and we made it happen,” Perez said.
What was once a rusty pole, which hadn’t been used in over 20 years, is now a new pole in the center of a gathering space on the fairgrounds.
Fair Board Chair, Nick Nigosian was key in making this flag pole a staple at the fair.
“Over 500,000 people have looked at it and it makes me feel good," Nigosian said. "By the end of this week, it’ll be one million people because we average 300,000 people at the fair here every year," he added.
Another local veteran honored during the ceremony, Jim Davidson, sang the national anthem. He told us what he hopes people take away from watching the ceremony.
“So they get more patriotism and know that someone is backing us up all the time,” he said.
Catch the full story on KESQ News Channel 3 at 6 p.m.
