Flag flies proudly at Ferron Elementary

By Patsy Stoddard
Editor

Fox family kicks off Liberty Kids with tribute to the flag
Kyle and Carrie Nelson Fox from Pleasant Grove brought the largest free flowing flag in the country to Ferron Elementary on Friday.
The children participated in unrolling the flag which came to town in the back of a van.
Fox told the students he was just an ordinary guy that wanted to make a difference. He’s never been in the military, but is extremely patriotic and he wanted to share that love with others in hopes they too might catch it and pass it along to others.
He began by flying a large flag in a canyon near his home. The flag has also flowed down the mountain at Sundance Ski resort by skiers.
Fox told the students, “I’ve been coming down to Peach Days each year. I love our country. I love and support the people who keep it free. I have been falling in love with our flag and our country. I am a patriot, but I am not in the army. In 2015 I had this idea to hang the flag across our canyon. I have learned much more about our flag, since I’ve been doing this. I didn’t have a lot of influence from family and neighbors, I haven’t had a lot of family members in the service, but I love the flag. I wanted to fly the flag. A stunt man I knew figured out how to get a flag across the canyon. We took a rope across the canyon with a drone and hung the flag from fishing line. I was surprised how it affected our community. I had a mother come up to me who had lost her son in the war. She was overwhelmed by the flying of the flag across the canyon. “There are a lot of sacrifices made so we can do anything we want. I wanted to do something bigger with a bigger flag. There’s a place in Wyoming, Two Oceans Creek where one fork of the creek runs to the Pacific and one fork to the Atlantic. You can splash water from one fork to the other and it will change the direction that water will flow. It’s a neat place. I wanted to span an American flag over that canyon.
“You need to follow your heart. In America we can do something. Through this project I have met a lot of incredible people. I met Gail Halverson, the candy bomber. He was an airforce man. I invited him to see the flag and he sewed the star in the upper right hand corner. Colonial Flag sewed the big flag for us. It was a great experience. Halverson was in World War II. After the war, there were a number of kids standing at the fence looking at him. They were all hungry. He thought to himself, I have nothing to give these children. He started to walk away, but remembered two sticks of spearmint gum in his pocket.
“He gave this gun to the children. They were in awe, they smelled the gum and passed it around so all the children could smell it. One of those children, a little girl named Ingrid, took her small piece of gum home and kept it under her pillow and saved it for three months before she ate it.
“We’ve taken the flag a lot of places, but this is the first time it’s been to a school.
“Gail Halverson was on the mountain with us when we took it to Sundance.
“I had a lady contact me who said she wanted to buy a T-shirt to support the cause because she was that little girl on the other side of the fence. She came to visit and she met Gail Halverson and she gave him a stick of gum, to return the favor,” said Fox.
Fox told the story of how he and his neighbors helped find the car a soldier who passed away had owned. The soldier went to Afghanistan and didn’t return. His son, Justin Rosure was getting old enough to drive and his mom put out a plea on Facebook wondering if anyone knew the location of the car. The car was found and restored and Fox drove it to Texas where the boy and his mother lived to present the car. The mother wanted her son to have something that belonged to his father to help him feel closer to a father who missed the boy’s childhood due to his untimely death in Afghanistan. The car had been sold at the time of his father’s death.
Fox sought donations to purchase the car and fix it up. It was a Toyota. Fox drove the car to Texas in time to give it to Justin on his 15th birthday. Justin was overwhelmed as he accepted the gift.
Fox said the flying of this large flag has brought him to know many stories of love and sacrifice for our country. “We live in America where we can be anything we want to be. You can learn some cool things in school, so stick with it. Fall in love with your country and follow your heart and do good. The heroes aren’t just those who go to battle, but those moms who stay here and those kids who stay behind. There are those who burn the flag, but they can’t take the spirit of the flag away. They can’t take our freedom away,” said Fox.
Carrie is the daughter of JR and Lynda Nelson of Ferron. The Fox family comes back to Ferron for Peach Days each year. Lynda said Kyle is always going and never slows down. He installs office cubicles. They recently built a new home and used a lot of the materials from their old farm house in their new home.
Fox encouraged all the students to be patriots in their own way. The students went to the playground where they took the giant flag out of the van and walked across the soccer field. After all the students were in place they began walking backwards across the field and the flag unfurled. The younger children went under the flag to keep it off the grass.
Children also walked in the Peach Days parade with a smaller flag belonging to the Fox family.