Westlake Village flag will wave no more

WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers OLD GLORY—The American flag flies high at the Westlake Village monument at the corner of Lindero Canyon and Agoura roads. This flag will be retired during a Fourth of July ceremony. In between the celebrating, the parades and the barbecues on Saturday, a solemn ceremony will take place in Westlake Village to commemorate the July 4 holiday.

Boy Scout Troop 752 will retire an American flag from the Westlake Village monument at the southeast corner of Lindero Canyon and Agoura roads.

The flag ceremony will take place in Berniece Bennett Park after the pancake breakfast and parade at about 10 a.m.

Both the old and new flags are 5 feet by 8 feet and were purchased by the city, according to community services coordinator Brianne Anderson.

The Scouts, chartered by Congress in 1916 to assist communities with services such as flag retirements, will conduct the ceremony by cutting each section of the flag with scissors, describing its significance and then burning it beyond recognition.

GOOD CITIZENS—Boy Scout Troop 752 will lead an American flag retirement ceremony July 4, which will include cutting and burning sections of the flag according to flag retirement laws. Grant Wilkins, whose son Garrison, 12, is in the troop, asked the city to provide a worn flag ready for retirement. Wilkins hopes the ceremony brings spirituality to the festivities.

"We want everyone to have fun but also want to remind them that it's the Fourth of July," Wilkins said. "Sometimes we get caught up in the fireworks (and) forget that this is our Independence Day and that a lot of sacrifice was involved in getting us to this point."

Wilkins is a member of the Rotary Club of Westlake Village, which is helping the city celebrate the 40-year tradition of a communitywide Fourth of July event. It's the first year a pancake breakfast is being served. All proceeds will benefit Rotary charitable causes.

The Scout troop, led by Lee Mackay, is chartered in Thousand Oaks and includes about nine boys ages 12 and 13. Wilkins is a former member of the troop, which formed in 1974. He was the third member to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. His older brothers were the first two. More than 50 other troop members have become Eagle Scouts since then.

"There's nothing more patriotic on the Fourth of July than a ceremony like this," Wilkins said. "It will be very moving."