Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com Joins with the American Red Cross Holiday for Heroes Campaign
Posted November 10, 2016
Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com, joins with Annin Flag Makers and the American Red Cross to encourage Arkansans to send holiday wishes to active military, their families, and veterans in our local communities.
Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com located on 800 West 9th Street in downtown Little Rock will host the event during Veteran's Week Nov. 11 through Nov. 19. Visit the Holiday for Heroes table to sign premade cards for a service member or veteran for the holidays! Craft supplies will be available at the Card Making Station for the children or adults to use to make personalized cards.
Holiday Mail for Heroes is an annual campaign by the American Red Cross and Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com is honored to be part of this heartwarming program to spread a little holiday cheer to current and former armed forces and their families. Come into the FlagandBanner.com showroom to share your appreciation and support with an encouraging note for the holidays to the brave men and women who serve or have served our country. A simple card can have a profound impact in raising the morale of our deployed troops and our veterans here at home.
The event kicks off at 8 a.m. Nov. 11th with refreshments (coffee, apple cider and desserts) being served all day while you shop, the normal 15% off military discount will be doubled during this week and available to all customers. Be sure to make or sign cards while in the store and perhaps even mingle and make friends with our local veterans and enlisted personnel who visit the store that day.
This special event will continue until closing on Nov. 19th. The Little Rock Chapter of the American Red Cross will pick up the cards for delivery. Showroom hours are 8 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. M-F and 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturdays. The showroom is closed on Sundays. Come make a card and show our Heroes how appreciated they are this holiday season!
Up in your business with Kerry McCoy will help you discover how to navigate the path to achieve the American dream.
McCoy started Arkansas's FlagandBanner.com over 40 years ago with just 400 dollars and now it exceeds 3 million in annual sales. Each week she and a guest will answer your questions and offer real world advice on how to become your own boss. Tune in to this passionate, informative, high energy and often wacky perspective on business in the 21st century. Let Kerry McCoy get all up in your business!
15 Years Since 9/11/01 We Still Honor Our Heroes with Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line Flags
Posted September 26, 2016
FlagandBanner.com announces the Thin Blue Line police flag to honor police lost on 9/11 and for communities participating in "Paint the Town Blue Initiative" and Thin Red Line firefighter flag to honor firefighters lost on 9/11 and the almost 1,400 who have died since 9/11 protecting citizens.
Little Rock, AR (PRWEB) August 22, 2016 - Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line Flags were originally designed as mourning flags to be flown at police and fire department funerals. They became a painfully common sight in the days and weeks after September 11, 2001.
It has been 15 years since the horrific events of what has become known as simply 9/11 or as President Bush named it in a proclamation, Patriot Day because of all the patriotism the events of that day brought about. Flags became a symbol of hope, defiance, mourning and pride for Americans all across the nation, not just in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
In the last few years and particularly in the last few months, police officers across America have been targeted specifically by violent offenders. Many of FlagandBanner.com's customers have wanted to find ways to let their local police know that they are still appreciated and that the acts of a few should not reflect on the many who serve and protect with honor on a daily basis.
Just since 2009, more than 1,500 police officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. Recently, FlagandBanner.com was featured on KTHV News in Little Rock, Arkansas in a news story about towns participating in the "Paint the Town Blue Initiative" and the video was posted to Facebook.
The minor feature news story has had more than 700 Likes and many shares and comments. According to Madison Monroe, Sales Manager at FlagandBanner.com, "The Thin Blue Line flag sales have skyrocketed as citizens rally to show their support of our police officers."
The 15th anniversary of 9/11 is this year and followed by Fire Safety week October 9th -15th in light of this, Monroe suggests, "To honor our 9/11 fallen firemen and all those that risk their lives daily to keep us safe, we recommend flying the Thin Red Line flag. Made from nylon with sewn stripes and embroidered stars, this flag looks like the Thin Blue Line for police, with the blue replaced with a red stripe to signify firefighters. From September 11th through October 15, you can show your support of your local fire department by flying this flag."
Firefighters were the hardest hit during the events of 9/11/01, as more than 400 firefighters were inside both towers or at the base of the Twin Towers working to get people to safety when the first tower collapsed. Since 2002, American fire departments nationwide have lost almost 1,400 men and women in the line of duty. With the current fires in California, October's Fire Safety week, and the anniversary of 9/11 now is the perfect opportunity for all Americans to show their support of firefighters lost not only on 9/11 but all those lost working to help the public before and since then as well.
FlagandBanner.com offers both the Thin Blue Line and Thin Red Line flags on their website, as well as in their showroom located on 800 West 9th Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company was started by owner Kerry McCoy, originally named Arkansas Flag and Banner, until 1995 when the name changed to reflect the company's website, Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com. They have been selling flags, banners, flagpoles, hardware, pennants and more internationally for more than 40 years. For more information about FlagandBanner.com visit their Website or Press Center.
48-star US flag that was first on Utah Beach on D-Day is up for auction
Posted June 6. 2016
A rare American flag that was carried by US troops on the historic D-Day invasion During World War II is set to be auctioned off. The 48-star flag has been kept by the captain of the boat for decades that led the first troops on to Utah Beach on June 6, 1944.
"This flag is easily one of the most significant artifact of the D-Day invasion that exists in private hands," said Marsha Dixey, a Historical expert and Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions. "We all know the harrowing story of those chaotic dawn hours as America made its push onto the beaches of Normandy. The fact of its survival is nothing less than a testament to the irresistible force of the American will."
he torn and tattered flag that is replete with a bullet hole from a German machine gun is expected to fetch as much as $100,000 in the auction. According to Heritage Auctions, the 30 feet by 57 feet banner is the "sole war souvenir of US Navy Lieutenant Howard Van Der Beek" when it was flown from the stern of Landing Craft Control 60.
After the war, he went on to become an English professor and wrote about the moments before they charged the beach in his memoir of his war experiences titled Aboard the LCC 60: Normandy and Southern France, 1944.
"At some point I looked astern and saw what lay at sea behind us: the greatest armada the world had ever known, the greatest it would ever know," he wrote in the book. "I must have been overwhelmed by the sight as I clung to the rail for a moment to take in the magnitude of that assembled fleet, many great, gray ships majestically poised in their positions; larger numbers of unwieldy landing vessels heaved by the heavy sea; and countless numbers of smaller amphibious craft tossed mercilessly by the waves."
According to Heritage Auctions, American flags that have been involved in battles have long occupied the "upper strata of military collectibles." Nearly a decade ago, flags that belonged to JEB Stuart and George Armstrong Custer fetched $956,000 and $896,000 respectively.
The 48-star US flag is set to go on auction June 12 in Dallas, Texas.
Eating an Elephant - McCoy taking Taborian Hall one bite at a time
Posted May 16. 2016
By Linda Caillouet The Chronicle – Historic Preservation News Vol. 19, No. 1 – February-March 1992
For the past two years Kerry Thompson-McCoy has watched the weather more closely than ever before.
The reason? A dilapidated old red brick building, sans roof, known as Taborian Hall, that she purchased two years ago for $20,000.
“I drove by there every day thinking, I’ve got to get this started, I’ve got to get going,” the 37-year-old North Little Rock native said. “I’d watch more glass come out of the windows and I’d watch more roof cave in…nobody knew the weather as well as I did.”
The elements took their toll on the historic Ninth Street building. The three-story, circa 1917 building suffered the most damage when the roof caved in during an ice storm two years ago. “It’s in terrible shape. “There’s no structural problems but a lot of interior damage,” McCoy said.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. “I saw it on TV and thought, “I’d love to own a building like that,” McCoy recalled.
Taborian Hall, also known as Taborian Temple, was originally building lIttle Rock’s black business district to serve as the home of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, a black fraternal organization.
McCoy, the owner of Arkansas’ Flag and Banner, is renovating the building and will relocate her business there.
But when the estimated cost of the project rose from $100,000 to $150,000 McCoy started to lose hope.
“About that time I decided to just throw in the towel and forget about it. I had been working on it for years and got sick of it,” she recalled. “Then I’d go home and think, “Where else am I going to get a building like that for that price with that location?”
So after securing financing from Twin City Bank, she decided to stick with her original plan to consolidate her business’s warehouse and manufacturing departments on the first floor of the old building, situation next to Interstate 630. Her deadline for completion is March 1992.
The second and third floors will be boarded up. “We hope to grow up to it. As money becomes available, we’ll move all the way up to the top,” McCoy said.
And McCoy’s company, currently house in an 1890s Victorian cottage is on the upswing, doing business both nationally and internationally.
“I always saw Arkansas’ Flag and Banner in a red brick, artsy building where we could throw the windows open on a spring day. I just could not see us, as casual as we are and as creative as we are, working in an aluminum building, in cubicles and not being able to see out, and trying to be creative,” she said.
According to McCoy, the back of the building, to the north, was the original struction, built in the late 1800s. The side facing the interstate was added in 1971.
The most well known feature of Taborian Hall is the third-floor Dreamland Ballroom with its hot pink walls. In the ‘30s, some greats who graced the stage included Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
Today the building’s interior paint is faded and peeling and some of the wall plaster is gone. It will all remain that way.
McCoy is planning a preservation rather than a restoration. “I’m leaving it all…all the exposed brick and chipping plaster. It will be a like a warehouse. It’ll be great. People will say ‘this must have been a great place when … “‘
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and McCoy says she had two choices: To leave it as she found it or return it to its original condition. “You can go back and actually replaster all the walls perfectly and take it back to the way it used to be, which is outrageous. You can’t afford to do that unless you’ve got $2 million.”
She may not have that kind of money to devote to Taborian Hall, but McCoy has lost her heart to it. “It’s got an energy to it. We went down there to celebrate the new year. You really get caught up in it.”
Even her conservative-minded financial manager, Charles Fisher, loves the building.
“You have to be over there to fall in love with it. I was not for this at first. I’m real conservative and look at everything in the company from the dollar’s point of view. But I knew that we had to move because our company was growing so fast. We needed a larger area. Once I got over there and got to looking at it, I kept thinking … Now I go over there every weekend and in the evenings,” Fisher aid.
And Fisher wasn’t the only one who second-guessed McCoy. “Everyone told me, when I bought the land, to just take my licks and run. I’m so glad I didn’t,” McCoy said, smiling. “They all said, ‘Go to an aluminum building … there’s no surprises. You can get one for $200,00.’”
“But I was thinking, ‘For 50,000 more, I could be in this building and the city is going to give me a $30,000) grant for the facade program.’ So for the same price, we can be in downtown Little Rock in a great old building.”
And she will be soon. Plans include adding a new roof and new third-floor joists and flooring, removing the mildew from the walls, doing plumbing and electrical work on the first floor, replacing broken windows, and repairing the tile hall floor.
“Every wall that wasn’t a load-bearing wall is rotted and falling down so we’re just taking them down. We’ll have all exposed conduit pipes, leave the ceiling rafters exposed, and stain all the wood dark,” McCoy said of the reconstruction.
A for the fixtures: Ceiling fans and hanging fluorescent lights, all easily removable, will be added. “In case we ever want to put in some nicer stuff. But anything’s an improvement over what was there.” McCoy said.
Despite the amount of work Taborian Hall needed, McCoy said she was never overwhelmed by the project.
“I think real methodically … step by step. It’s like eating an elephant; you just take it a bite at a time.”
McCoy seems to be a shrewd businesswoman too.
“I kept thinking, ‘630, how many cars are driving by a day and can see our big sign out there? What free advertising. “‘
And it’s working. The business’s phone has been ringing off the wall.
“People call us and say. ‘I just wanted to thank you for doing that.’ Isn’t that nice?”
McCoy, who lives in Hillcrest in a 1930s home, is no stranger to downtown. As a single, she rented an apartment in an old house there. Today she ·hares her home with husband Grady and children, Meghan, 12, Gray, 4, and Matthew, I.
“My husband says he’ll kill me if l take him down the tubes with me. I told him we may have to live in it (Taborian Hall) if it doesn’t work out,” he said, smiling.
While today McCoy is cheered, not LOO long ago she was jeered by friends and family. “Everyday that’s all I heard. ‘When are you going to get that roof fixed?’ But now they’re starting to have a little more respect for us.”
Even co-workers teased her. Fisher recounted this tale: “I and someone else from the office were in Mississippi on business. We passed a building down there that was falling down and the roof was half burnt off. We said, ‘let’s stop and take a picture and see if Kerry wants to buy it.”‘
Now McCoy’· friends arc behind her 100 percent, something that is important to her. “If I was restoring a home, it would just be me, my husband and my kids going. ‘Isn’t this fun?’ But the way it is now, there’s a lot of people to share it with.”
Linda Caillouet is a writer for The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
FlagandBanner.com Announces Patriotic Fashion line
Posted March 31, 2016
Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com has been in the flag industry for more than 40 years. Their experience has shown American's not only love Old Glory in front of their homes and businesses but also in their ready-to-wear clothes. Patriotic fashions are always in style but demand increases when patriotism spikes. This year provides two events that are sure to illicit American pride: elections and Olympics.
The patriotic season kicks off with Armed Forces Day, Peace Officers Memorial Day and Memorial Day all falling within the month of May. Flag Day is in June, Independence Day on the fourth of July, US Coast Guard Day and National Airborne Day are celebrated in August and Labor Day, VJ Day, Patriot Day, Star Spangled Banner Day, Constitution Day, US Air Force Day and National POW/MIA Day wind up the season in September. Add to that the Summer Olympics and the Presidential election, one can understand this will be a year that people will be proudly sporting patriotic fashion.
In order to meet consumer demands, FlagandBanner.com has expanded their clothing and jewelry product lines to include the name brands of True Hitt, Silver Moon Factory, T-Party, D.K. Fashion, Socksmith, Yak & Yeti, Eagle Wing, Lord Daniel sportswear, and Montana West. Products include a shoes, socks, sunglasses, jewelry, dresses, swimwear, watches, ties, scarves, men and women shirts, pants and a children’s line.
Those keeping up with trending fashion know stars and stripes have gone Black and White. Celebrity watchers will have seen the monochromatic patriotic clothes and caps worn by Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Kate Upton and others.
With a degree in fashion merchandising, Kerry McCoy, owner and president of Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com has always had a flair for fashion. "I am excited about expanding our clothing line. I especially love the black and white clothes. Being a small business owner I have the flexibility to try new things. I have to really hold myself back from being too far out on trends and technology. It is not called the bleeding edge for nothing. You can really lose your shirt by advancing your company too fast. There is a balance between new ideas and expenditures with trying to ensure our customers have a large selection, pleasant experience and ease of check out. We are always improving to provide the most quality product, expert service, and outrageous support possible," said McCoy.
In business since 1975, Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com carries more than 20,000 products including flags, flagpoles, installation, hardware, accessories, garden banners, bunting, clothing, home decor and more on their website. Visit their historic showroom located at 800 W. 9th Street in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas. Open Mon-Fri 8-5:30 and Sat. 10-4, closed Sundays. The company also manufactures custom flags, banners, bag signs, construction banners, barricade signs, event tents, trade show table cloths and other custom products.
For more information about FlagandBanner.com visit them online or call 1-800-445-0653 to speak with one of their friendly flag experts.
Arkansas' FlagandBanner.com has been in the flag industry for more than 40 years. Their experience has shown American's not only love Old Glory in front of their homes and businesses but also in their ready-to-wear clothes. Patriotic fashions are always in style but demand increases when patriotism spikes. This year provides two events that are sure to illicit American pride: elections and Olympics.
