Wreaths Across America director: The flag helped us get through 9/11
Executive director of Wreaths Across America Karen Worcester reflects on her group raising the American flag every Tuesday to honor the victims and first responders of 9/11.
Talk about an all-American tradition.
Wreaths Across America has kept up an ongoing effort since 9/11 to raise American flags every single Tuesday in Freeport, Maine.
The organization’s executive director Karen Worcester joined "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday morning to reveal that the tradition has continued in terms of respecting the flag as a symbol of hope and unity.
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"That symbol that has brought this country through so much helped us all through the days of 9/11 and the days following," she said on "Fox & Friends."
Wreaths Across America executive director Karen Worcester joins 'Fox and Friends' on Sept. 6, 2022. (Fox News)
"What it symbolized is all the men and women that served, it symbolized all the first responders that ran into the burning buildings, and it symbolized all the men and women that would join the military and come together."
The flag raising was first started by three women who stood on the side of the road and raised their American flags on Sept. 11, 2001.
Flags will be raised this year on 9/11 as well — and everyone is invited to join in.
The women committed to the tradition for 19 years until they retired.
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Wreaths Across America then "took over the charge," Worcester said, to carry on the message that "we can always look to [the flag] to pull us together."
Worcester announced that flags will be raised this year on 9/11 as well — and invited "everyone" to join in.
A photo of three men holding American flags shown on "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Fox News)
The director also called on Americans to raise their own flags across the country and submit videos to Wreaths Across America via Facebook using the hashtag #flagsacrossamerica.
"Share stories about people who stepped up on 9/12 and days after," she said.
"And let’s just join together and remember — unified and under that flag, we can overcome everything and we can accomplish anything."
Worcester explained that it seems many Americans are forgetting about the power of patriotism following the tragic events of 9/11, especially since America’s youngest adults weren’t even alive then to witness it.
Wreaths Across America executive director Karen Worcester discusses the organization's tradition of flag raising on "Fox and Friends" on Sept. 6, 2022. (Fox News)
"It’s really sad that it takes a tragedy," she said.
"We need to unite under that flag. We need to remember what it stands for."
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Worcester reiterated how the country is "backsliding" and distancing itself from the values of the American flag.
"We were entrusted with freedom and we need to take care of it by teaching our children to love our country and rally around our flag," she said on Tuesday morning.
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