Route 179, near the Canton Center Congregational Church on June 7, 2010. Photo: dotCANTON
By Steve Wilder dotCANTON.com
In France, folks might call it “la route de drapeaux.”
In Spain, they might say “el camino de las banderas.”
Americans might refer to it as “the road of flags.”
In Canton, we call it Route 179.
What began in 2004 as a local woman’s tribute to a son serving in Iraq and a late brother who was an Air Force veteran has become over time something that seems quite natural for Route 179, all the way from the Barkhamsted line to the Burlington border near St. Patrick’s Church in Collinsville.
When the 200 or so American flags that line the roadway come in for the winter after Veterans Day each year, it feels like something’s missing. When they go up again in May, sometime before Memorial Day, the red, white and blue mixes quite well with all the other colors of spring.
“I think it’s a part of the town now,” Melissa Zils says.
Melissa’s sister, Elaine Zils, began putting up flags in 2004, but only for a relatively short stretch of Route 179 in Canton Center, from Canton Clay Works to North Mountain Road. She did it with money out of her own pocket. Then another Canton woman got involved.
“I was just so moved when I saw the part (of Route 179) that she had done,” says Stella Richardson. “I cried all the way to work.”
Richardson says her motivation for joining up with Elaine Zils was simple. “I’m just proud to be an American,” she says. “I think what our soldiers do is outstanding.”
In 2005, Richardson says, “I suggested we do all of 179.” The women raised some money and made it happen. “When people noticed, they started asking around,” Melissa Zils says, “and Stella and Laney started taking donations. I still don’t think they got enough to cover the whole route, but it was nice.”
Richardson and Elaine Zils got the flags up again in 2006, but tragedy struck a few months later when Zils died in a traffic accident in Simsbury.
“In lieu of flowers, we asked for donations to a new fund,” the Elaine Zils Memorial Flag Fund, Melissa Zils says. The fund remains active, and “people still send donations; I get notes that are so nice,” Melissa says.
These days, the tradition on Route 179 is in the hands of Melissa and her husband, Darin Barnes. Their sons help when they can, as do volunteers, including Boy Scout Troop 77, led by Emil Huyghebaert, which participates in putting up and taking down the flags and later burning those that are worn out, the proper method of disposal.
Melissa checks the poles, the hooks and the 2 1/2 foot by 4 foot flags at the end of each season. The elements beat up the stars and stripes pretty well over the course of almost six months, but Melissa salvages as many flags as she can and gets the retired flags to the Boy Scouts. Sometimes poles need to be replaced. She says the cost of keeping the project going as it’s currently done “usually runs between $700 and $1,000 for the year.”
In order to prolong the life of the flags, Melissa says she has considered flying them from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July, and then from Labor Day through Veterans Day. That, however, would mean an additional two trips each year along Route 179 to bring them in and put them out again.
Otherwise, she says she intends to keep a closer eye on damaged flags through the summer and to get them down when they have become too tattered, and she says a growing number of people are coming forward to offer assistance. Melissa also is hoping to replace the bunting on the fence of the Canton Center Cemetery.
Donations can be sent to the Elaine Zils Memorial Flag Fund, c/o the Collinsville Savings Society, PO Box 197, 136 Main St., Collinsville, CT 06022
