As a small crowd listened to Skokie Mayor Ann Tennes speak outside Skokie’s village hall last week, a vibrant green, yellow and orange flag fluttered and practically glowed in the afternoon sun behind them.
Tennes was thanking the 80 people who answered the village’s call for submissions to design a new village flag, the 700 people who provided feedback and voted on the finalists, and many others who helped in the flag’s creation.
Buddy Boor, the designer of the winning flag, said he and his wife Chelsea moved to Skokie from Chicago just a couple of years ago, didn’t know anyone, and were “truly surprised by everybody’s warmth and welcoming, so much so that it felt like home in a heartbeat.”
The warm welcome inspired him to try his hand at designing the flag, and he considered how to represent Skokie, such as with a flower, cattail or something in the village’s history.
But he came up empty.
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As he reflected, “I realized that what makes Skokie such a special place is not where we are, but who we are.
“And there are three reasons that I think the flame is the perfect representation of our community, and they all tie back to the strength of people.”
The first reason references the flame design in the stained glass art piece that adorns village hall. It was created by former village employee Joe Folise in 1978, when a neo-Nazi group was threatening to march in Skokie, which had a large population of Holocaust survivors at the time.
Folise’s flame illustrated the “Skokie Spirit” of the community at that time coming together to oppose their hate.
Boor said the flag design also represents the Potawatomie tribe, whose members were early inhabitants of the region.
They were known as the keepers of the fire.
“We are transitioning to a new flag, and I think it’s important to maintain a tie to the indigenous mystery of this place,” Boor noted.
The third reason Boor gave is that the flag represents a beacon, “a luminous signal to everyone around the world, that you’re welcome here.”
As one of the most diverse communities in Illinois, Skokie has welcomed people, and that melting pot has become part of the village’s DNA, he reflected.
“So, I hope I’ve done right by you all. I’m really excited,” Boor concluded, before he and Patrick Deignan, the village’s communications and community engagement director, walked over to the flagpole and hoisted up the flag, to applause.
Tennes commented that the flag symbolizes the community’s strength that comes from unity.
“Our community has a unique, not just opportunity, but obligation to be a shining example of kindness, respect, support, and upstanding for the rest of the world. And everyone’s help is needed in that effort, and may this flag fly as a testament to those values, and that resolve,” she said.
The members of the village’s Flag Review Panel included:
•Michelle Beatrice, art educator, Skokie School District 73.5
•Ami Koenig, Ami Koenig Design
•Randy Payne, Randy Payne Design
•Pam Sloan, artist and member of the Village of Skokie Fine Arts Commission
•Patrick Deignan, Village of Skokie communications & engagement director
•Meredith Gioia, communications manager and Fine Arts Commission staff liaison
•Patrick Biederer, Village of Skokie Building & Inspection Services, artist