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Sunday, May 4, 2008
Fayetteville Observer
Q&A with Larry Clubine
Title: Chairman of Glory Days, vice president of Fayetteville Downtown Alliance
Age: 46
Home: Fayetteville
In the news because: Clubine is helping establish a Field of Honor — 1,500 flags to go up this week around downtown in honor of servicemen and veterans. Starting Friday, hundreds of flags will be erected on 8-foot poles throughout downtown as part of a Field of Honor.
The flags will stand until the May 27 Glory Days. Individuals have been purchasing flags for $25 in honor or memory of someone. Sponsors can pick up the flags later or donate them to a school.The flags will stand until the May 27 Glory Days.Individuals have been purchasing flags for $25 in honor or memory of someone. Sponsors can pick up the flags later or donate them to schools.
A public dedication ceremony for the Field of Honor will be Saturday at 11 a.m. on the grounds of the Airborne & Special Operations Museum on Hay Street. Lt. Gen. Robert Wagner, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, will speak, and the Heritage Restoration Chorale will perform.
Clubine works with KV Consultants and Associates, a private firm with offices on Hay Street that offers employee assistance programs. He volunteers with the Fayetteville Downtown Alliance organization and is chairman of this year’s Glory Days events for Memorial Day.
Staff writer Alice Thrasher recently spoke with Clubine. Here are excerpts:
Q: How many years has the Downtown Alliance sponsored Glory Days during Memorial Day weekend?A: This will be the eighth annual event. It grows every year. Last year we had about 8,000 to 10,000 people attend; that was probably more than twice as many as the previous year.
Q: Will the new Field of Honor flag exhibit attract visitors who have never attended Glory Days?A: Yes. Many people want to participate. What I think is that it will bring people to walk through the flags from the time they go up to Memorial Day. I picture it as almost a spiritual experience to walk through the flags.
Q: Where will the flags be displayed and when will they go up?A: We are putting them up on the 9th (Friday) at 4 p.m. and will have a dedication on Saturday. We will have a lot of volunteers, including Boy Scouts and Embarq employees. We will put 600 flags at Festival Park, 600 at the parade ground at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, and some along Bragg Boulevard and Ray Avenue, kind of connecting the two fields. They will be on eight-foot poles attached to a piece of rebar that is buried in the ground. The flags will be five feet apart and set up in rows and columns. There will be some flags at Freedom Memorial Park, too.
Q: Do you still need volunteers to put the flags up?A: Yes. People can show up at 4 p.m. Friday. And there will be opportunities for people to sign up to help make sure the flags stay in order after they go up. Each flag will have a ribbon on the pole that tells the sponsor’s name and who the flag is honoring. We will have a grid to help people find their flag after it is put up.
Q: How did the Glory Days committee come up with the Field of Honor idea?A: I was at an event at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden when a consultant gave a report about merging city and county governments. After the meeting, (City Councilman) Keith Bates asked me to go to his car to look at something. He showed me information about a Field of Honor and suggested that we do one here. Suzy Hrabovsky volunteered to chair our Field of Honor here.The first one in the U.S. was to honor the firefighters, police officers and others trying to rescue people in the twin towers in New York City on 9/11. Other cities have had them. The previous field in North Carolina was in Wilmington a couple of years ago. The (USS North Carolina) Battleship Commission sponsored that field. But our field is to honor and in memory of those members of the military who have served or are serving our nation, those presently involved and those who have passed on.
Q: Will the Field of Honor return every year?A: We hope to do it every year. I just think it will be a part of our annual Glory Days event. And next year, it will cost us $4,200 less. That is how much the flag poles and the rebar cost us.
Q: Is it too late for someone to sponsor a flag?A: We had only a few flags left and just decided on Thursday to order 300 more. People can look at our Web site at Glorydaysnc.com to order one. We have sold hundreds of flags online just from our Web site. You can pay for them at the Downtown Alliance office at 222 Hay St., as well.
Q: What other events are planned for Glory Days?A: This year’s theme honors our Vietnam War veterans, but really it is to honor everyone. Most of the events will take place at Festival Park, including the free outdoor screening of the film “Good Morning, Vietnam” on May 25, the Sunday night before Memorial Day. Downtown Hay Street will be blocked off for the bicycle criterium race with about 300 racers on Memorial Day, beginning at 7 a.m. It will be a 0.7 mile track on Hay, Gillespie, Franklin and Ray streets and someone described it as the “NASCAR of bicycling.” There will be two crossing points in the 100 and 200 blocks of Hay Street.We will have a pancake breakfast on the sidewalk in front of Docks (at the Capitol) on Memorial Day. It’s $5 for all you can eat. You can eat inside at Dock’s or take the pancakes with you. The Freedom Memorial Park ceremony will be held at 10a.m. on Memorial Day.
Members of the Swamp Dogs baseball team will be at Festival Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kids can pitch and they will have a radar gun. The players will give them tips. A display of vintage military equipment will be set up. Classic cars will line the promenade to Festival Park. We will have homemade baked goods and hot dogs for sale and people can take rides on a horse-drawn wagon. Live music by local groups will be on the stage at Festival Park all afternoon.
IN THE NEWS.....
FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Channel 14 Memorial Day Flags
Fayetteville Observer Times Online - April 2, 2008
Fayetteville Observer Times - April 3, 2008 (Flag Display to Honor Soldiers, Veterans)
Glory Days Field of Honor—All Gave Some...Some Gave All. |
