Volunteers sewing the flags
A group of eight women gathered the morning of Tuesday, March 14 in the Centralia City Hall Community room.
They brought with them 87 United States flags, hundreds of straight pins and three sewing machines.
“I love the flags, I love to sew and I love to help,” said Toni Swiney, as she pinned the hem of one of the flags which formerly, and will again, fly over Centralia’s Avenue of Flags. “I love to flags, I love to see them.”
It was Swiney’s second turn at flag repair duty. “We’re repairing the flags,” she pointed at Barb and Kristen Adams, working with pins and flags at a white folding table, “they’re over there pinning the edges and we’re sewing them down, it’s a team effort.”
Swiney has been sewing most of her life, she learned the skill from her mother Twila Davenport.
Jo Ann Reichert informally oversaw the team.
“I’m kind of organizing the group and what we’re doing,” she said. “We did 107 the last time we did this. I rely on a lot of good volunteers to help.”
For the complete article, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard
