10/02/2026
The August 11th derecho caused a tremendous amount of tree and property damage. Some flagpoles were bent in the storm as well and had to be replaced. Through one of those unfortunate instances, we were able to help an Army Veteran in Merrillville.
I have a customer in Merrillville who asked me in late July if I could take a look at and possibly repair his friends flagpole. His Army Veteran friend, who is 80 years old and wheelchair bound, loves to spend nice days on his back patio watching the flag wave. Unfortunately, he had a piece pole that kept breaking in storms, it started as a 20' pole but was down to about 13', hanging on by a thread. I had set up a date to look at the pole on Thursday August 13th but the derecho hit on August 11th, so those plans never materialized.
Soon after the storm, I started to receive calls about damaged and bent poles that needed to be replaced. One of those was calls was from Pastor Dennis Meyer who had a 25' flagpole that bent badly in the storm. Before I replaced it, I asked him what he wanted to do with the bent pole. Pastor Meyer said he didn't really have any plans for it, so I told him about the Army Veteran and his situation. I told Pastor Meyer that I had an idea of taking his bent pole and turning it into a 20' pole for the Veteran. Pastor Meyer said he loved that idea and that he wanted to donate it to him.
I called my customer in Merrillville and told him I had a better solution for his Veteran friend. I had a donated bent 25' pole that I would clean up, cut the bend out of, rearrange some hardware and turn into an arrow straight and strong 20' flagpole.
So in early September, I went to Merrillville and donated my time and supplies to remove the sectional pole and to install Pastor Meyer's donated 25' pole that I converted into a 20' pole.
The Army Veteran sat on the patio in his Army hat and watched me work. When I was done and raised the American Flag, he said he couldn't believe that was his pole. He kept thanking me and I finally said, "No, Thank You!" "Thank You for your service and all that you've done for us."
I told him that sometimes a good thing can come out of an unfortunate situation and that this was one of those times. I hope he will be watching that flag flying high for many more years to come.
A big thank you to Pastor Meyer as well, this wouldn't have been possible without his kind donation. 🇺🇸
