Volunteers, city staff and students put up flags in Fairfield’s Central Park

FAIRFIELD — Volunteers and city staff gathered in downtown Fairfield Wednesday morning to put up hundreds of American flags in Central Park.

Scott Vaughan, Fairfield Fire Chief and code enforcement officer, said volunteers and city staff put them up one day before Veterans Day because “In a small way, it will help us heal, which we need greatly right now.”

After the job was done, the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Fairfield bought pizza for all the helpers, and VFW quartermaster Paul Riepe gave everyone a history lesson on the VFW and showed pictures of veterans.

Twenty-two students from Fairfield Middle School helped put the flags up this year. FMS Assistant Principal Matt Jones said the students came from three sections of the Trojan Time groups at the school. Trojan Time groups meet every morning and instill concepts related to Trojan Pride in the students. The three sections were led by Jones, FMS social studies teacher Matt Schenck and FMS P.E. teacher Jerrod Belzer.

Jones said the students enjoyed participating in the event and learning about veterans at the VFW.

“The kids made connections with some of the families they know,” Jones said. “It was a neat thing.”

This was the third year students from the middle school have helped put up the flags in Central Park.

Vaughan announced that the flags would be taken down early Friday morning.