Norrie Club tree burn lights up night

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood - Residents had a chance to get out and enjoy music and a roaring fire at the Norrie Club's eighth annual Light Up the Night Christmas Tree Burn Saturday.

"We're very pleased (with how the night is going). We had the fireworks going, we've got people here having fun. The music will probably be going until midnight. It should be a good time," said club president Steve Lehto Jr. "It's just a good time to get out - everybody has cabin fever by the end of January, so everyone wants to get out and have a little fun out here."

While he didn't have an exact count, Lehto said over 305 trees and roughly 60 pallets were burned.

Prior to the lighting of the bonfire, there was a snowshoe hike through the area surrounding the clubhouse.

This year's event also added a flag retirement ceremony.

"We wanted to include that in the event out of respect for the flag," Lehto said. "We've always been a patriotic club. We say the Pledge of Allegiance every month before our monthly meeting, we've adopted soldiers overseas, adopted their whole platoons, and sent them care packages."

Lehto said the retirement was added after he was approached about the number of flags in storage at Ironwood's Riverside Cemetery that were worn and needed to be disposed of. The club also received worn flags from various private citizens.

While some in the community expressed concern about the idea of burning the flags, Lehto made clear that the ceremony wasn't intended to be disrespectful and is actually how flags are supposed to be disposed.

"It's the only proper way (to dispose of an American flag)," he said. "It shows respect for the flag, it shows dignity for the flag and it's the only proper way to burn a flag - through the ceremony. We're not doing it in protest; we're not doing it in hatred for the flag, for the soldiers, for the nation; we're doing it out of respect for the flag."

Despite some criticism, he said people expressed an interest in seeing the ceremony.

"We had a lot of people that had actually never seen such a ceremony, so they came here wondering what time it was going to start so they could see that," Lehto said.