Banners wave in Riverbank thanks to sheriff’s Explorers

By dawn’s early light Monday morning, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department Explorer Sgt. Brandon Williams and Explorer Nick Sutton met at the police station here to undertake what’s become a holiday tradition.

From a storage area at the back of the station on Third Street, the two lifted 79 U.S. flags on wooden poles from wall racks to the back of a department pickup truck. By about 6:30 a.m., they were at First and Atchison streets, beginning a more than 3/4-mile, slowly moving round trip to post the flags along both sides of Atchison/Highway 108.

With Williams behind the wheel, Sutton walked alongside and posted the flags in holes drilled into the sidewalk, anywhere from 5 to 15 yards apart. The Memorial Day morning was quiet, with only a few vehicles passing, but Sutton said the one time he performed the flag posting before, they received quite a few horn honks of support. “It’s a positive thing, and the community appreciates it,” Williams said.

For a little more than two years, members of Explorer Post No. 226 have been displaying the flags on Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and the National Day of Service and Remembrance, or Patriot Day, Sept. 11.

The task takes 30 to 45 minutes, said Williams and Sutton, both Modesto residents who have been Explorers for three years. The flags will be removed between 6 and 8 p.m., they said, but that job will fall to a couple of other Explorers.

Their duty done before many Riverbank residents even were stirring, the two were free to enjoy their Memorial Day with family and friends.

This story was originally published May 25, 2015 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Banners wave in Riverbank thanks to sheriff’s Explorers."