FLAG CEREMONIES

FOUR FREEDOMS CEREMONY
THE FLAG SPEAKS

FOUR FREEDOMS CEREMONY

Materials needed: American Flag
4 Candles
Spotlight
5 Girl Scouts

Darken Room. Girls enter, one girl holding each corner of the flag and one standing center behind the flag. Girl stop in the center of the room or stage. Raise back of flag so that just the had and shoulders of the narrator shows. Each corner girl has a candle. The narrator steps out and lights each candle and returns to center back.

Narrator speaks: What you see here represent the past, present and future. The strips of Old Glory stand for the original 13 colonies and the stars represent the 50 states. The Girl Scouts represent the women of tomorrow, the light and warmth of the candles remind us of our four great freedoms. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear. If we eliminated any one of these freedoms our world would become dark and cold.

One candle at a time is blown out

(Note: Instead of the Narrator speaking for the whole thing, at this part, you can do the following)

The holder of the candle 1 says:
Freedom of Speech and then blows out her candle, and so on. Candle 2-4 until it is dark.

When room is dark, the back girls holding the back corners of the flag, raise the flag higher and the girls holding the front corners, let go.

The Spot Light is turned on.

Narrators speaks: In this world of potential cold and darkness, or rule by few, stems the United States of America. Here the 4 freedoms do exist and are an example of warmth and light for all. Let us stand and sign, "God Bless America".

THE FLAG SPEAKS
(A Girl Scout Flag Ceremony)

PERSONNEL: Talking American Flag and One Girl Scout
EQUIPMENT: American flag and if possible, two microphones connected to a PA System.
ARRANGEMENT: Place American flag on stage with microphone nearby. A Girl Scout acting as voice of flag is located off stage with a second microphone.

(Girl Scout strolls on stage, passes by flag; as the Flag speaks, Girl Scout slowly turns to look at Flag)

FLAG: Hello, Girl Scout.
GIRL: (Acts surprised and looks around) Who said that?
FLAG: I, the Flag of your country.
GIRL: A talking Flag? That’s new.
FLAG: Of course I can talk. I’ve always been able to but you couldn’t her me.
GIRL: Oh! What have you been trying to tell us?
FLAG: For one thing, how proud I am of my fifty states. What states added my last two stars?
GIRL: Alaska and Hawaii.
FLAG: Right! History was made in your parent’s and grandparent’s time.
GIRL: What state was the forty-eighth star?
FLAG: That was Arizona in 1912
GIRL: Tell me more.
FLAG: What do you want me to tell you?
GIRL: Tell me about your history.
FLAG: Okay. When the colonist came I was the Queen Ann Flag,
all red with a Union Jack. Then I changed to the Grand Union Flag and my red changed to seven red stripes and six white strips, making thirteen stripes; but I still had the Union Jack. I was first raised over General George Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in January, 1776, as the standard of the Continental Army. After our country became a new nation, I changed to Old Glory and still had the thirteen stripes but added a circle of thirteen stars on a field of blue in place of the Union Jack. From 1794 to 1818 I had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes and was called the Star Spangled Banner, when Francis Scott Key wrote our National Anthem. Then the years rolled along and in 1818 the stripes were reduced to the thirteen and from then on a star was added for each new state that joined the Union, until there are fifty stars today.
GIRL: What a wonderful story! Please rise while we say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of our country.
GIRL: Please join me in singing the Star Spangled Banner.

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