Aurora Boy Scouts to celebrate Labor Day by lining streets with flags

Celebrating Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 7, Aurora Boy Scouts will line the streets of Aurora, North Aurora, Montgomery and Sugar Grove with about 350 American flags.

In their second annual Post the Colors effort, Scouts in Blackhawk Troop 11 at Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora will post American flags in front yards of sponsoring residents starting at dawn and retrieve the flags at dusk.

With adults providing transportation, Scouts in uniform deliver and remove flags, saluting the flags each time.

Proceeds from the annual fundraiser benefit outdoor Scouting programs. Coordinating the Post the Colors effort is Aimee Healy, Troop 11 fundraising chair. She said the fundraiser replaces multiple pancake breakfasts, ice cream socials, barbecues and other former benefits by the troop.

For $20 subscriptions from residents, the Scouts post flags on Flag Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.

The Scouts are instructed to keep social distance while posting the flags and when they remove them.

Part of BSA Three Fires Council, Blackhawk Troop 11 was chartered by Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora in 1916 and is the second oldest troop in Illinois. The troop celebrated its centennial in 2016 with an open house and Court of Honor awards ceremony at Wesley UMC.

Since its inception, 181 members of Troop 11 have earned the Eagle Scout award, the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America.