Nothing says freedom more than the red, white, and blue of an American flag waving in our North Texas winds. If you drive through our neighborhoods around our national holidays, you will see many
beautiful symbols of patriotism that got there thanks to the Preston Trails Rotary Club. Founded in 2008, Preston Trails Rotary Club serves the communities of Celina and Gunter.
As current president Ron Perry describes it, “there is nothing more beautiful to me than a flag blowing in the wind." Preston Trails Rotary currently puts up almost 700 flags every holiday with the help of local Cub, Boy, and Girl Scouts from Frontier Parkway in the south all the way to the northern Gunter border. Growing at a rate of 100 new flag deliveries per year, David Werner and his rotary team are busy inspecting, repairing, and making sure that all delivered flags are on straight poles and clean. The goal of the group is to have flags up at every home and business in Celina.
But what makes this all even more special is what they have been able to do with the money raised by the flag subscriptions. Preston Trails Rotary takes the money they raise in subscription fees and turns that into scholarships that they award to deserving Gunter/Celina area seniors to cover fees and tuition of students planning to study at Collin College Celina Campus. In 2022, they were able to provide more than $9,600 in scholarships to local students. It is Ron’s hope that as our population grows, the flag program will continue to grow to help even more students in the future.
To get signed up for holiday flag deliveries and learn more about the program, visit
RotaryCelina.org/Stories/flag-program
All applications must be submitted 10 days before the holiday to be included. Preston Trails Rotary Club will purchase, display, store and maintain the flag for $60.00 per flag per year.
