CANFIELD — Working in shifts, members of Canfield Rotary showed up Friday to the Canfield Presbyterian Church to assemble flags.

Some of the nearly 70 members took advantage of the warm weather, hanging new flags on poles or adding hardware to improve the metal poles.

“It’s very labor-intensive” but members pitch in, Ted Gavozzi, president of Canfield Rotary said.

Residents contact the Rotary for the flag installation in their front yard, Gavossi said.

Then, he marks the yard and calls the Ohio Utilities Protection Service, which goes to the location to make sure underground lines aren’t disturbed. Then the membership installs a 10-inch-long pipe for a flag pole to be inserted.

Gavozzi said that when the 3-by-5-foot flags are taken down for the season, the in-ground pipe is capped so it doesn’t fill with water and snow.

Rotary member Marty Raupple explained that usually the flags are waving around Memorial Day through the Fourth of July, then Labor Day through Veterans Day.

This year, however, the Rotary left the flags around the city, which also has caused a little more wear and tear on the Old Glories.

“If someone calls and their flag is damaged or has come off the pole, we’ll go out” and maintain the flag, Raupple said.

The flag display service is the largest fundraiser for the Canfield Rotary. Gavozzi, and Raupple said for example, the program helped the Rotary donate $50,000 toward the Canfield Library.

There are some 1,400 flags around Canfield city as part of the program.

There are routes, averaging about 50 flags per route, Raupple said.

Local Boy Scout troops will assist with the installation and extraction each season, members said.

For more information, visit www.CanfieldRotaryFlags.com.