Pretty soon, Frederick County residents will be proudly hailing a new county flag.聽The occasion: the county鈥檚 275th anniversary.
Marc DeOcampo, who happens to work for Frederick City, won the contest to design a new county flag. 鈥淚t truly is an unexpected honor,鈥� he told 海角社区app after learning his design was chosen.
The design is simple: the flag is divided into four different quadrangles, with alternating stripes between the large blocks of color.
鈥淭he colors are the colors in the Maryland flag: red, yellow, white and black鈥� he said. DeOcampo creates 鈥渆ssentially a crossroads pattern鈥�, and the crossroads theme was something specified in the contest rules.
DeOcampo said Frederick County is historically and geographically, a crossroads.
Historically, DeOcampo said the county was at the 鈥渆picenter鈥� of the Civil War鈥攖he northern portion of the Mason-Dixon line runs along the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania and while it was a slave state, Maryland did not move to secede.
And geographically, DeOcampo said 鈥淔rederick County is at the heart and center of the state of Maryland鈥� explaining that Route 355 runs North to South and the Old National Road (Route 40) runs from Baltimore to Western Maryland.
DeOcampo said he worked on the design with his son, Cameron, who also submitted a flag design of his own.
鈥淗e鈥檚 actually a big history buff,鈥� said DeOcampo. 鈥淲e debated about different designs and what they meant, and that鈥檚 how we got interested in it.鈥�
The last time the county updated its flag was in 1976, part of the nation鈥檚 bi-centennial celebration. That design, by local artist James Pearl, showed Francis Scott Key pointing to an outline of the county with a background of red and white stripes. Key, the author of the lyrics to the U.S. National anthem, was born in Frederick and died in Baltimore.
Heidi Keeney, a county employee and the co-chair of the county鈥檚 said of the new flag design, 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see it flying over our county facilities in the coming weeks.鈥�
Keeney told 海角社区app that while the flag has been redesigned, the county鈥檚 distinctive seal, which is seen on county vehicles, letterhead and uniforms, will remain the same.
There was apparently some concern that the county seal was being replaced, but Keeney said the seal with its image of a farmer, a scythe in one hand, a sheaf of grain in the other and the Jug Bridge in the background, will not be altered.
DeOcampo said he鈥檚 excited about the prospect of seeing his flag design flying over county facilities, but added, 鈥渙ne of these days, there鈥檒l probably be another competition I can imagine with the 300th anniversary of the county, and it will probably change again.鈥�
