Immaculate Conception celebrates Flag Day! The Knights of Columbus’ Flag Day Ceremony took place at 9 AM in the Holy Union Convent Courtyard and included guest speakers, student presenters, and members of the NYPD marching band.
View the article from the Queens Gazette here.

View the article from The Tablet, with a slideshow of images from the event, here.

View the Currents Video of Flag Day at Immac, June 14, 2011.

Immaculate Conception graduate Nicole Aloise was invited to give a speech to the crowd:

My name is Nicole Aloise and I graduated from Immaculate Conception School fourteen years ago. I am now a prosecutor at the Queen’s District Attorney’s Office. It is my privilege and honor to be here with you today.

The American flag is very important to me both as a lawyer and as a citizen. As a prosecutor, my job is to do justice; to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Our country’s criminal justice system is based on the following truths: that all men are created equal, that all men are presumed innocent until proven guilty and that justice is blind. These ideals do not exist in other countries and citizens of other countries do not enjoy the same protections under the law that we share as Americans. Outside of every courthouse flies an American flag and it serves as a reminder to all who enter the courthouse doors that they are privileged to live in a country where the law will protect them and justice will be done.

Likewise, as Americans we are fortunate to live in a society of freedom and choice. Although I know that right now, if you were given a choice you probably would not choose to come to school every day or to go home and study and do your homework; the fact that your parents had the choice of what school to send you to and whom you would be educated by is something special to our country. I know that when I was your age and people would tell me that I should be grateful that my parents send me to Immaculate Conception – a good, Catholic school – the words just rolled off of my shoulder. Now, having been to many other places around the world, I can confidently say that I am grateful to live in a country full of freedom; a place where my parents had the opportunity to choose to send me to this school so that I could be educated by excellent teachers, make lifelong friends and grow up in a fun, safe environment.

I also know that there are mornings when you are standing up in class saying the Pledge of Allegiance and your morning prayer and all you are thinking is that you would much rather still be home in bed. I know you all have mornings like that because I definitely did. So, I won’t ask any of you to stop thinking that but I will ask all of you this: the next time you are saying the Pledge of Allegiance in class, try hard to listen to the words because they really are meaningful. They remind us that these stars and stripes don’t just differentiate our flag from the flags of other countries because of the colors or the design – they differentiate our flag from the flags of other countries because of what they represent; One Nation, Under God. The stars and stripes represent the right you all have to choose your friends, to watch one hundred different channels on TV, to listen to all different types of music, to wear whatever you like (when you aren’t at school in uniform!), to choose your high school and college and career, to choose where you want to live, what religion you want to practice and who you want to marry.

No matter where our flag is flown throughout the world, it represents the United States as a whole but here at home, it represents so many different things. Throughout music, literature and history we Americans have used our flag to represent what we needed at any given time and place – as a symbol of what we require to get us through tough times and happy times, to lift our spirits and remind us what we are fighting for, to keep our focus on coming home and, to commemorate those lives lost in defending its colors.

On a battlefield the flag stands for honor and freedom. On the moon the flag shows that once again, as Americans, we are braving new frontiers. At Ground Zero the flag stands for perseverance and, as I mentioned earlier, in the courthouse the flag stands for justice and in a school it means truth.

I ask each of you to take the time today to think about what the flag represents to you and I hope that like I did, you all take advantage of the freedom and liberty our flag stands for and choose a life that makes you happy.

May God bless each and every one of you and may God bless America.

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Fourth and Fifth graders also marched in The Flag Day Parade in lower Manhattan on Tuesday, June 14th. It has become a tradition for Immac. They carried the banner and began at City Hall and then marched to Fraunces Tavern.  Fourth grader Emily Mattelini won the Flag Day Essay contest and was invited to read her essay at the celebration.

Emily Mattelini, winner of the Flag Day Essay Contest!