SAFE Credit Union holds collection drive for proper flag retirement

A flag collection drive is being held by SAFE Credit Union from Friday, May 23, through Wednesday, July 30. The drive invites the public to bring in old and damaged flags for proper retirement. This is the credit union's second annual American flag collection drive. Flags ready for retirement can be brought to any of SAFE's 17 branches in the Greater Sacramento area and its Folsom headquarters. SAFE is partnering with the Aerospace Museum of California to host a collection box as well. "SAFE is honored to provide the service to our members and the public," says SAFE Credit Union Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Mike McCarthy, who is a veteran and founder of a SAFE employee group called VALOR (Veterans and Loved Ones Resource). VALOR members are dedicated to supporting active military personnel, veterans and their families. SAFE will forward the collected flags to Folsom's Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 6604, who will fold and ready the flags to be given to Folsom's American Legion Post 362. The legion will then conduct and arrange retirement ceremonies under the U.S. Flag Code. SAFE is extending the collection period from Memorial Day weekend to the end of July, a time that includes Memorial Day, Flag Day and the Fourth of July. "Last year, we conducted this for a few weeks around Flag Day and the Fourth of July and gathered more than 300 flags," McCarthy says. "People told us that they appreciated us providing this service. We're excited that this year we are expanding the collection time and adding the Aerospace Museum as a place to drop off flags." SAFE Credit Union VALOR member Amy Peeples brought in the first flag for the collection program at SAFE headquarters, a flag once owned by her grandfather, a World War II veteran who died last year at age 98. "I found it in his garage in a property he owned in Arizona, so I don't know the history of the flag, but I thought it was perfect to bring it in for VALOR and the flag donation to ensure it gets disposed of properly," she says.