MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Cheat Lake Rotary Club will honor any hero- military, family, community or medical with the Flags for Heroes program. On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Flags for Heroes organizer Michael Yura said residents can dedicate a 3′ x 5′ flag for a $50 donation.
The flags are prominently placed along Don Knotts Boulevard, the Glenmark Center and the WVU Creative Arts Center.
“It’s such an important thing and it’s also important for the city,” Yura said. “For people moving here and seeing what kind of city we have and that we honor heroes.”
Heroes can of course be members of the military, or first responders, but Yura included nurses, doctors, or anyone that had a profound impact on their life. A hero for one resident was his mother who donated a great deal of her time to the school system as he was growing up.
“She donated 10,000 hours to the schools in the cafeteria volunteering over her lifetime- 10,000 hours and that was his hero,” Yura said. “We all have a hero.”
Yura said his hero was his brother, a war veteran who was much older than he and took care of him before he went off to war. At the age of five, Yura said he was incredibly hurt when his brother left but he returned from the war and they enjoyed a close relationship until his passing.
“He was 16 years older than me and he was more of a dad,” Yura said. ” He took care of me when I was in school and he was a Korean War veteran.”
Rotarians do a variety of work in the community to help groups, organizations, and those who are less fortunate. The group has purchased equipment for fire departments and provided improvements for a local robotics club to make their space more workable.
“We put the air conditioning and the heating system in their building so the kids could go in their in the summer,” Yura said.” You just couldn’t because it was so hot.”