Following the tragedy that struck our nation on 9/11/01, thousands of Americans wondered what they could do to help. Steven and Joanne Galvin knew that they had to do something and they created the 9/11 National Remembrance Flag.
It was their desire to do something that brought them to the idea of creating the remembrance flag. they felt the creation of a flag would provide an everlasting remembrance to the innocent lives lost. Further, they felt that selling them would provide many people the opportunity to share in displaying their remembrance to the lives lost, as well as the proceeds providing ongoing donations to the various relief efforts.
In designing the flag, they wanted to insure that they respectfully and equally represented each site where a tragedy had occurred that day – thus the center stars holding a silhouette of the Pentagon and Twin Towers; and the words “Flight 93″. We also wanted to include a portion of the flag that would express everyone’s sorrow. This is the portion of you reaching out to the victim’s families. The black in the center panel of the flag represents this. The two blue panels are the colors of the state flags where each plane was downed: New York, Pennsylvania & Virginia. The color of the stars: (red, white and blue) is representation of the colors in our United States Flag.
Once the design was drafted on the computer, they looked through hundreds of other flag designs to insure there were no conflicts of designs with any other flags. They filed for copyright on 9/25/01. Being two individuals, not a company, the time from conception to actual manufacture of the flags was a long road, but eventually, the flags were available to the public. Of course at this time, all of the flag manufacturers were backed up with the immense increase in orders for US flags. After several months of searching, they made contact with Patrice Corletta of Stars & Stripes, The Flag Store (a project of the Veterans Outreach Center) in Rochester, NY. Patrice liked the design, and was willing to contact the manufacturer she deals with to produce the flags for them.
What the 9/11 National Remembrance Flag represents:
The background
* The blue on each side of the flag represents the color of the state flags for each state where a plane was downed – New York, Pennsylvania & Virginia.
* The black in the center of the flag represents the sorrow we feel for the innocent lives lost from this tragedy: those on the planes, those working in the towers, the Pentagon, and the rescue workers whom lost their lives during the rescue.
The stars
* The stars represent the 4 planes that crashed and the innocent lives lost on those planes and in the buildings.
* The blue star represents the Pentagon & American Airlines Flight 77, and for the innocent passengers and the lives lost in the Pentagon.
* The 2 white stars represent each of the towers at the World Trade Center, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, the innocent passengers on those flights, the lives lost (both those in the buildings and the rescue workers) and those that survived.
* The red star represents United Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the innocent passengers, and those who sacrificed their lives to protect the loss of other innocent lives.
* The color of the stars (red, white & blue) is representation of our United States flag.
* All 4 stars are touching, as well as the 2 white stars to touch the blue in the flag – this represents our ‘unity’ in the United States.
This flag is based on the POW/MIA flag “that we may never forget”. Proceeds from sales go to the Relief Efforts of the 9/11/01 Tragedy.
