SHEBOYGAN, WI (WTAQ) – Flag Day is coming up on Wednesday, June 14th. Many people in NE Wisconsin will mark the occasion by putting out a U-S flag in front of their home, maybe on their boat, maybe on the back end of their pick-up truck. But for one business in Sheboygan, everyday is Flag Day. LISTEN !
Since 2014, If you’ve traveled down Interstate 43 through Sheboygan County you can’t help but notice it. On the campus of Acuity Insurance, the world’s largest free-flying American Flag, on top of the tallest flag-pole in North America. It’s actually caught the eye of Sara Helman for years.
“We’ve driven past it many times, but this is our first time pulling off the highway and checking it out.”
And she didn’t come alone….
“My name is Henry and it’s my first time visiting the flag. I think it’s really tall and it has a bunch of stars and the stripes are really tall.”
But keeping the 70 by 140 foot flag, and the 400 foot tall flagpole it flies from, in pristine condition…that’s the job of a special team that takes this responsibility very seriously, even personally. Kurt Lodl is General Manager of Facilities and Land Maintenance at Acuity. He says they monitor the weather. The wind can whip the pole like a car antenna and tear the flag.
“We use an application called wind alert. We find that to be the most reliable tool that we’ve tried through the years. It’s a daily look and maybe even a couple of times a day depending on what’s rolling in.”
The flag comes down when the gusts hit 40 miles an hour.
There are six of us that will come out. We’d like to throw more people at it but you just get in each other’s way at that point. You catch elbows in your cheeks and all that stuff because you can’t see each other in the flag material.”
And doing it without Old Glory ever touching the ground.
“The goal is to run it in and collapse into that bin. You see six people gathering material like no tomorrow to keep it in that bin.”
Sheri Murphy is the Acuity V-P of Services & Administration. She says the story of the flag and flag pole started after 9-11. But as the company campus grew, they wanted to match it….and 9 years ago that’s what they did.
“Our first poll was 100 feet, then we went to 150. Then we were just under 200, because over 200 you need a beacon. As our property grew, as our building grew in height, we kept growing the flag pole as well so that it stayed in scale and was prominent. Then at some point we decided we would go big.”
Since then the pole and flag have become a tourist attraction.
“Especially in the summer we get a lot of traffic. Look down at the end of the parking lot we have a turnaround because we get a lot people road tripping here specifically to see the pole.”
Keeping the pole, and the gardens around it, in pristine condition is the job of Daniel Luenzmann , Acuity’s Building Security Specialist
“The flag pole draws a lot of good attention and it could also draw bad attention depending on where the climate is at the time. We just look out for the pole, lookout for the people coming to visit the pole. Make sure everything is safe.”
Lundsman is a US Army veteran, and served the country in Afghanistan. Watching these grounds is a job he takes very personally.
“It’s a good moment to rollback into Sheboygan County. You can see that flag flying from a ways away and kind of know that your home. A lot of good moments personally with the flag so now that it’s something I get to work with and work on it’s been a lot of pride and joy for me.”
While the flag and the pole are an easily visible attraction, really a beacon, as you make your way up and down the interstate there’s more to it than that. At the base of the Pole is a memorial to those who’ve sacrificed their lives defending the flag. You’ll find the name of every Sheboygan County veteran, more than 750 of them, killed in the line of duty. Sheri Murphy says at Acuity they think of the whole package as hallowed ground.
“That is how we try to treat it. Showing the entire space and monument and certainly the flag all the respect that it deserves. And that those men and women deserve.”
All of it, the flag, the pole, the memorial at the base, and the story of how it all came together is open to you, weather permitting, around the clock….not just on Flag Day.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Acuity Insurance
For More information on the Acuity Insurance Flagpole click here.
