By Caroline Gordon 

The Hopedale Historical Commission hosted Hopedale’s Flag Day to honor local historian Dan Malloy and his late wife, Elaine Malloy, for their service to the Little Red Shop, outside of the museum on June 14. 

Thomas Beder, a United States Marine, began the ceremony by thanking those in attendance, DAV Lawrence J. Heron Chapter Six, State Representative Bryan Murray, Hopedale Board of Selectmen Chair Ryan Keyes, Hopedale Historic Commission Co-Chair Suzan Ciaramicoli, The Hopedale fire and police departments, and the residents of Hopedale. 

Beder said, “I am very honored to be at Hopedale Flag Day. This is certainly not a military event, this is a patriotic event, an event for America where we celebrate the flag.” 

Ciaramicoli explained that Malloy would be given the retired flag and the new one would fly over the museum for the next 12 months. 

She said Malloy and his late wife deserve to be awarded the old flag due to their “outstanding service to the town” and because they were a “force to be reckoned with.” 

Ciaramicoli added, “A good citizen is active in their community. They participate in the social life of their town, and they look for ways to make the community a better place to live. The Malloys were instrumental in the team of folks that had Hopedale recognized as a Nationally Registered Historic District.” 

She explained that Elaine led the force to restore The Statue of Hope and hosted annual senior citizen teas. 

According to Ciaramicoli, in 2002, Town Coordinator Allan Klepper, appointed the Malloy’s co-chairs of Hope Curators, which was then considered the town museum. Later, they became the curators of The Little Red Shop Museum.

Murray took the stand and said, “I have always been impressed by Hopedale, its community and the folks that live here and love this community. The best thing that we can do is continue those efforts and expand those efforts and show other communities how it’s done.” 

Next, the Boy Scouts removed the retired flag, hung a new one, and Beder presented  the old one to Malloy. 

Malloy said, “I want to thank you for also recognizing Elaine tonight by providing a chair with a photo of her on it. Whatever project Elaine got into, she got really into it - she did huge amounts of stuff!”