LAPLACE – Two St. John the Baptist Parish schools have brand new flags courtesy of school board member Russ Wise. The original flags at Lake Pontchartrain Elementary and LaPlace Elementary had been badly damaged by the winds of Tropical Storm Lee. Because of reductions in tax revenue and cuts in state funds, Wise offered to replace both flags, and the principals jumped at the chance.

The flag at LaPlace Elementary had suffered the most in the storm, so Wise loaned the school the flag that usually flies at his home on special occasions. It had originally flown over the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, which Wise and his family had visited several years earlier. “You can’t have school without a flag,” Wise said, “and I knew they’d take good care of it.”

It actually took several weeks for Wise to come up with flags that met his specifications – they had to be a specific size, with stripes that were sewn together and embroidered stars rather than simply printed onto a piece of cloth. The cloth itself had to be able to withstand wind and rain. And it had to be American made. “It just seems wrong somehow to put American flag in front of an American school if it’s made somewhere besides America,” Wise said.

Wise is a Vietnam veteran who spent five years on active duty with the U.S. Army.

It marks the second time Wise has donated new flags to St. John schools. Five years ago, working with then-Congressman Charles Melancon, Wise purchased flags that had flown over the U.S. Capitol in Washington for every school in the district.