The Henderson Optimist Club invites area businesses to fly an American flag to help fund club projects as they display their patriotism in the community.
Thurman Murphy was on “The Local Skinny!” Tuesday and told John C. Rose that the flag project is one of the ways the club funds its various community projects. New subscribers pay an initial fee of $60, with a $30 annual renewal fee.
“We keep the flags and put them out ourselves,” Murphy said. About 35 businesses, most of them in the downtown area, currently participate. This project has been in existence since the late 1960’s, he said, the brainchild of founding club member Ed White. The club replaces the flag or the pole when the need arises, he said.
Club members put up the flag eight times a year – Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day, Murphy said, adding that they sometimes get requests from the Chamber of Commerce or other business associations for the flags to be posted at other special occasions.
The mission of the Henderson Optimist Club is to help the youth in the community, and the club does this through various projects and contests, Murphy noted.
The projects help fund two scholarships awarded to two Vance County students each year. The $1,000 scholarships are renewable for four years. Although the student doesn’t have to attend a school in Vance County, the student must be a resident of Vance County, he explained.
“The Local Skinny!” March 2 Podcast with Thurman Murphy
Other annual contests for high school students are the oratorical contest and the essay contest. Local winners advance to the zone level, and from there, district and then national levels, he said. Winners at the district and national levels are awarded scholarship prizes as well.
Murphy said the “Attend and Win,” contest at the eight county elementary schools gives a pizza party to the classroom at each school with the highest quarterly attendance. That contest has been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he said the project will pick back up as soon as it’s safe to be back in the school buildings.
The local Optimist Club also:
- sponsors two baseball leagues at the YMCA and the Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks Department;
- hosts a Christmas party with gifts each year for children at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford;
- financially supports the Optimist Cottage at the Boys and Girls Home of Lake Waccamaw;
- hosts the “Respect For Law” project each year and names an officer of the year from the Henderson police department, Vance County sheriff’s office, NC Highway Patrol, Henderson and Vance County fire departments and Kerr Lake park rangers.
To sign up your business to display the American flag, please call Thurman Murphy at 252.432.6847 or email thurmanmurphy@nc.rr.com.
Optimist Club members Dean Thornton and Tommy Farmer also serve on the Optimist Flag Committee.
