Raise the Flag

Constructed and dedicated in 2006, the Flagpole honors military Veterans. Jay Robinson became involved with the project in 2004 when approached by John Gebhardt, the college veterans affairs director for Santa Fe College and the University of Florida. Jay contacted several companies around the country who construct large flagpoles and assembled quotes and concepts for the memorial. Shortly after taking the concept to his grandparents, Kate and GW Robinson, he had a full set of working plans provided by the office of GW Robinson Builder to present the Santa Fe College Facilities Services’ Construction Planning Board. With approval from the board and support from the College President, Dr. Jackson Sasser, fundraising goals were established and a campaign to ‘Raise the Flag’ was started.  At this point Jay became the Project Manager for the fundraising and construction of the Flagpole.

In Honor of Those Who Have Served

Many local businesses and organizations made donations to the cause and momentum was quickly established. A Memorial Committee Board was established to assist with the task of completing fundraising, Randy and Bobbie Robinson sat on this board. The board hosted a fundraising event in 2005 at the Robinson Residence in which more than 200 people attended and the majority of the roughly $60,000 needed to raise the flag were collected or pledged. The rest is history.

Today the American flag proudly flies on the Santa Fe College campus on the south side of the school in an area selected so that literally ‘millions of travelers’ on Interstate I-75 can view the flag during the day as well as night due to large spotlights. The Collegiate Veteran Society (CVS) at Santa Fe College is the ‘Keeper of the Flag’, they maintain the flag by lowering it for storms or when the Nation calls for half-staff. They also maintain an inventory of flags to replace the current one flying so that it can be repaired or retired, (the flag replacement cost is around $1,500 each). This is an ongoing task that volunteer organization of veteran students perform. The Memorial also serves as a venue and attraction for community events held throughout the year such as the ‘All American Liberty Fest.’

The Memorial has a bronze plaque fixed on each side at the base. The first bronze plaque is a salute to veterans with quotes put together by the student veterans, the second includes a quote from President Roosevelt and a list of the CVS Staff and the Veterans Memorial Committee. The third plaque consists of names of veterans submitted by local families and organizations, the last plaque lists the names of individuals and organizations that made contributions to the fund that made the memorial possible.