Celebrating the Freedom to Choose The Path to A Better Life

Flag Day Celebration Honors Our Freedom to Pursue A Better Life

Perseverance. Pride. These two words mean a lot on June 14—the date that Flag Day is commemorated—but they are also valued each day when a veteran steps into The Recovery Bank / Robert Spitz Veterans Center and chooses to pursue the path to a better life.

In honor of that freedom to choose, The Recovery Bank/Robert Spitz Veterans Center, housed in the former Third National Bank at 120 Wyoming Ave., will commemorate Flag Day with a ceremony that is open to the public and begins at noon on June 14.

History has shown, just as people in recovery know, progress takes time. The United States flag was adopted on June 14, 1777, but it wasn’t until August 3, 1949, that Congress approved the national observance, and President Harry Truman signed it into law, despite attempts by Presidents Wilson and Coolidge, who issued proclamations in 1916 and 1927 asking for June 14 to be observed as National Flag Day.

The American flag is symbolic of our nation’s liberty, justice, and freedom, but its colors also evoke strong emotion and connection to our nation’s pride. ?Spitz Center Veterans Project Director Jeff Brown was inspired to write the poem “Red, White and Blue.”

?Brown, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Gulf War wrote, “White stands for purity, it’s clean and it’s new,” --symbolic words for what happens each day at The Spitz Center/ Recovery Bank…a peer-to-peer support center for persons who have experienced addiction to alcohol or drugs…and their loved ones.

As a veteran himself, it is especially meaningful for Brown to help others with similar experiences. Brown said, “In many cases, we have a hard time trusting anyone other than our fellow veterans, and that makes people like me feel as though we can be uniquely useful to the veterans’ community and their families. Freedom is important in every sense of the word… and that includes freedom from the bondage of a substance use disorder.”?

The Flag Day program at The Spitz Veterans Center/Recovery Bank includes the following:

·????????Remarks made by Attorney Frank Bolock, who is the project manager at the Robert Spitz Veterans Center/Recovery Bank.

·????????The Pledge of Allegiance led by local veteran Sue Rudat.

·????????Reading of Brown’s poem “Red, White and Blue,” by Jennifer Coleman, the Recovery Bank’s project administrator and certified recovery specialist.

·????????Flag raising by Jeff Brown and three other veterans.

·????????Closing remarks by the Honorable Judge Michael J. Barrasse.

·????????Lunch

As attendees to the program look up at the refurbished flagpole that was erected in 1917 and rededicated at last year’s Flag Day ceremony, they can be reminded that there is hope to restore what has been damaged.

Attorney Bolock, said, “The refurbished flagpole symbolizes the miraculous transformations that occur here every day for veterans, their families and recovering people at the Spitz Center/Recovery Bank.”

Funding for the Spitz Veterans Center is made possible by a grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation and the Scranton Area Community Foundation.

?To learn more about the wonderful peer-to-peer work being done, visit The Recovery Bank.