$60 Waco flag sales slow, but library check-out popular

Anyone who wants to get their hands on the new flag, which went up the City Hall pole for the first time in February and features the city's “Flying W” logo, can purchase a nylon version for 4 6 feet for $59.99 at the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau. As of Thursday afternoon, only six flags had been sold online, with just a couple more sold at the office's visitor center near the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, a spokesman said.

The spokesman said the office has not promoted the availability of the flag, but plans to spread the word later. Office also more recently began offering a small version for $10.99, including a small desktop stand.

Although sales have been slow, the four branches of the Waco-McLennan County Public Library encourage Wacoans to see a flag, take it on their summer vacation and send in photos.

The library started the program in early May and has 13 flags spread across the four branches, library spokeswoman Amy Sassatelli said.

“It's been going really well so far,” Sassatelli said. “They've taken it to really beautiful places. … Every day I open my email, I'm like, 'Yay! There's another picture of the flag. And it's exciting because I never know where it's going to be.'

The library and the city have posted the images on their respective social media accounts, showing people carrying the flag as far as England or El Salvador. A group of Baylor University faculty and students with the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project brought the flag from Waco to Italy a couple of weeks ago.

A library card is required to check out a flag and can be held for up to three weeks, just like a library book. Sassatelli said anyone interested should check the libraries' online catalog to see which location has a flag available for reference.

As of Wednesday afternoon, only two of the 13 flags were available for departure.

“People have been really cool about embracing the flag,” Sassatelli said. “In addition to people showing their local pride and city pride by flying them, there are a lot of people who know what the Waco flag looks like now.

“This has been great to get our new flag out there and get recognition for that flag.”

Sassatelli said city spokeswoman Monica Sedelmeier came up with the idea for the traveling flag program and the library is “obviously the perfect vehicle for it.” Sassatelli also stressed that you don't need a fancy vacation to see a flag.

“It can be anywhere from smaller towns and fun, cool stuff like that,” said Sassatelli, who placed the flag in front of a 35-foot fork in Springfield, Missouri. “You don't have to take it to the Eiffel Tower, but it would be great if you did.”

The new flag design replaced an old one that flew for more than three decades. Waco City Council member Josh Borderud helped spearhead the movement to get a new flag and said the response from Wacoans has been positive.

“The most common response I've gotten, and I think the city has gotten, to the new flag has been 'Where can I get one?'” said Borderud, who has been on the council since November 2020.

Borderud said it's been great to see the social media posts of people carrying the flag around the country, and he's been a part of it himself. Borderud and his family recently brought the flag to the state Capitol in Austin, and he said he hopes to bring it to Washington, DC, as well.

The “Flying W” designed by Carrol Perry, a city employee in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is what makes the flag so popular with locals, Borderud said.

“I think a few points of inspiration for me were seeing our citizens get it tattooed on their bodies, seeing people's desire to fly the 'Flying W' and seeing it on city caps,” he said. say Borderud. “It is part of the permanent iconography of the city of Waco and it has pride.

“We hoped that the redesign of the flag would create a symbol as a source of pride for our citizens, and we believe we are achieving that.”