Nearly 500 Charlestown retirement community residents and staff (pictured) unfurled a 40-foot by 32-foot replica of Fort McHenry's Star-Spangled Banner as they sang the National Anthem at their own Flag Day event.
They hoped to set a record for the Largest Intergenerational Singing of the National Anthem.
They celebrated the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s writing of the poem during the bombardment of Fort McHenry that became the National Anthem.
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Francis Scott Key living historian (aka National Park Ranger Jim Bailey) told the story of how Key wrote the poem. He was dressed in character as Key.
Charlestown’s resident brass band played patriotic music.
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Charlestown resident Gene Langbehn, a 2014 recipient of the Governor's Leadership in Aging Award for Performing Arts, led the singing of the National Anthem.
Nearly 1,000 people at Charlestown’s sister communities in Michigan, Kansas and Colorado also sang the National Anthem at this time.
A videotape will soon be sent to Fort McHenry, the Maryland Historical Society, the National Archives, the Guinness Book of World Records, the Smithsonian, and President Barack Obama.
