By David Scribner
September 5, 2011
“It was one of the most overwhelming, and powerful things I’ve ever done, bringing people together that way in the face of a tragedy,” recalled Monument Regional High School science instructor Lisa Baldwin.
She was referring to how ten years ago, in response to the attack on the World Trade Center, she helped organize the high school community to create of a 112 by 70 foot American flag painted on the embankment in front of Great Barrington’s regional school on U.S. Route 7 – a tribute visible to thousands of passersby each day.
Photo Courtesy of Ogden Gigli
It took three days to complete, working day and night, to stake out the grid for the stars and stripes, and paint the red white and blue. Hundreds of people pulled over to watch.
“It moved me so much to turn such a tragedy that had affected our students and our community, into something celebrating our freedom and our way of life,” Baldwin said.
For the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, coming up Sunday, Baldwin has planned a much larger scale effort that has been underway for the past six months – and right through the summer – to recreate that flag. And this time it will involve the entire school community, from elementary school students from Muddy Brook to high school students to volunteers from the community.
“That flag has become part of the Monument heritage and culture,” Baldwin noted, “and as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approached people started asking me, ‘Lisa, what are you going to do?’”
Her answer was to do it again – but this time, engaging the entire community – and using part of her personal Kapteyne Award funds to buy the paint and materials.
Photo Courtesy of Ogden Gigli
The flag will be formally unveiled with a ceremony on Sunday, Sept. 11, at 10 a.m., at the high school, attended by representatives from local police and fire departments, as well as members of the New York City Fire Department. The Rev. Charles VanAusdall will deliver the invocation.
The day before, on Saturday, Sept. 10, Baldwin said the community is invited to participate in the creation of the giant memorial flag.
“People are welcome to check it out and be part of it,” she said. “We’ll be working from 9 a.m. throughout the day to get it done.”
But she points out that the project has really been adopted by students of all grades, and has received essential support from Great Barrington’s 250th Anniversary Committee.
On Tuesday, Sept. 6, kindergarten through fourth grade students from Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School will be matched up with high school students to prepare the grid and begin the painting.
“The idea is that this will help young people work through fear and tragedy by helping to create something that reinforces our values as a society,” she said.
On Thursday, Sept. 8, middle school students will take over the work, and on Friday – and Saturday – high school students and volunteers will finish the flag.
“Every student will be involved,” Baldwin said. “They’ve worked all summer, measuring out thousands of pieces of string, measuring the ground. It’s been a huge geometry project.”
The whole event, plus the work sessions leading up to it, are being filmed by Monument senior and filmmaker Robert Adler of Stockbridge.
“This is a huge event,” he said. “It shows that after 10 years how the whole community can come together on a much larger scale.”
When edited, the film will be shown to the school and community, and will be posted online.
“We are going to use some cool time lapse photography that will show the flag being made,” he said. “And I’ve shot all the meetings.”