FREEPORT – Preschool children at Little Friends Early Learning Center in Freeport are beginning to learn about community and their involvement in it.
On Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, the youngsters and their families, along with anyone else who cares to participate, will join the Flag Ladies on Main Street across from the intersection of School Street in what will amount to the town’s Veterans Day observance.
It’s the same thing the Flag Ladies have been doing every Tuesday at 8 a.m. since the 2001 terrorist attacks on America – only with the addition of children.
Jane Purdy, director and owner of Little Friends, on Wardtown Road, said that the school has been working with the children, ages 3 and 4, on personal and social development, talking about how their actions affect others. They’ve taken part in food drives, made murals for residents of nursing homes and helped clean up Winslow Park.
“We wanted to build on those themes,” Purdy said. “We wanted to get them out into the community. This is just another different idea. This is a good way to teach them how to be part of a whole. I respect the Flag Ladies greatly. Our focus will not be on 9/11. It’s more on helping the Flag Ladies.”
Purdy said she came to know the Freeport Flag Ladies – Carmen Footer, Elaine Greene and Jo Ann Miller – through her association with Freeport football. The Flag Ladies always attend the Freeport High School homecoming game, and hold the American flags during the National Anthem.
The preschoolers at Little Friends learn about the American flag as part of the Maine Early Childhood Learning Guidelines.
“We have always incorporated that,” Purdy said. “We’re talking about bringing pride to America, just like we build pride in Little Friends. We use Little Friends as a community.”
The parents, Purdy said, are just as excited about standing with the Flag Ladies on Veterans Day as are the children.
“We have great enthusiasm from the parents about doing this with their children,” she said. “I really want to teach about giving back.”
Parent Alecia Jack of Durham said she looks forward to joining the Flag Ladies with her 4-year-old son, Bryson.
“This will help them expand their concept of community,” Jack said. “I think it will be a good experience for them.”
Jack said that her son sees the Flag Ladies often from his stroller, when she makes her regular runs in town.
“I’ve told him that he will be standing out there with the ladies he sees with the flags,” Jack said.
Bryson has his own thoughts about the adventure.
“This is because we are learning about being good to our friends,” he said, as he and his schoolmates posed for a photograph holding their flags.
The Flag Ladies receive many invitations from around the area to make appearances on Veterans Day. They do plan to show up for a veterans dinner at Texas Roadhouse in Scarborough at 1 p.m., but 8-9 a.m. – the time the planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11 – is reserved.
“We were asked to be at Sam’s Club for a free breakfast, but it’s Tuesday, so we can’t,” Greene said. “Our commitment to Tuesday morning between 8 and 9 is there as long as we can do it. It’s our mission. That day has become important to people who were there, and we do it for them.”
“We can’t break the tradition,” Footer said.
Elsewhere in Freeport on Veterans Day, a few members of J. Arthur Stowell Post American Legion will head to the Hawthorne House assisted living and nursing home at 2:15 p.m., to visit with the veterans who live there.
The Freeport Flag Ladies, from left, Elaine Greene, Carmen Footer and Jo Ann Miller, sit on the bumper of their van last week following their Tuesday morning appearance on Main Street, to honor Americans who lost their lives in the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. The Flag Ladies will be there again on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the usual 8 a.m. 
Preschool students from Little Friends Early Learning Center will join the Freeport Flag Ladies on Main Street in Freeport on Veterans Day. The students prepped for the event recently, holding up flags outside the school on Wardtown Road. Standing in back, from left, are Jameson Horr, Cole Bowdich, Isaac Burger, Nico Pond, Sebastion Bond, Bryson Jack and Jameson Gross. Girls standing in back with the boys are Ellie Stairs and Maeve Lindley. Seated in middle row, from left, are Lily Jenusaitis, Calla Wiederkehr, Tripp Donahue, Logan Roberts, Raelyn Donahue and Adeline Bond. Sitting in front are Avery Fariel, Shelby Jenusaitis and Suzie Shute. 
Also on hand for the Veterans Day observance from Little Friends Early Learning Center in Freeport will be, from left, Alden Perow, Gavin Lizotte and Hailey Long.
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