Wednesday, June 15, 2005 By Jordan Muhlestein Standard-Examiner staff ROY -- The Golden Spike Elks Lodge No. 719 met Tuesday to honor the American flag and celebrate Flag Day. Claude Nixon, secretary of the lodge, said every Elks lodge in the United States is required to celebrate Flag Day every year. "The Roy lodge has done it (the Flag Day ceremony) since 1956," Nixon said. "The flag is the symbol that inspires people to remember the country and the trials and tribulations it has gone through." Nixon said he has seen an increase in pride, patriotism and respect for the flag since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The ceremony, which was at the park behind the Roy city offices, began with the Elks officers stating some of the ideals symbolized by the flag and honored by the Elks. "Charity, justice, brotherly love and fidelity," said Exalted Ruler Walter Kirk. "The flag symbolizes love of country and loyalty to the American way of life." A history of the American flag was shared, and local Boy and Girl Scouts posted examples of the progression of the flag. It started with the Pine Tree Flag that flew over the colonial forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill and includes the first stars-and-stripes flag. It finally came to the current 50-star flag, which came July 4, 1960, when Hawaii was named a state. However, Flag Day was celebrated long before the current incarnation of the flag. A day to honor the U.S. flag was first celebrated in 1885 by a Wisconsin schoolteacher. The teacher chose June 14 as the day to honor the flag because it was that day in 1777 when the Continental Congress passed the first flag act. Flag Day grew as a grass-roots celebration, even being celebrated statewide in New York and Pennsylvania. The Elks began recognizing Flag Day after a Grand Lodge meeting in Dallas in 1908.