Spring Break
Georgian native flies her flag for the first time at OSU
International flags are donated to the MU by international students to bring a piece of their home to their school
Samantha Blann
Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: News
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The Daily Barometer
The Memorial Union received its 128th flag yesterday from Georgia native Lia Danelishvili. The Georgia flag will be hung in the MU between the Guam and Qatar flags in the beginning of next month.
Danelishvili, a senior researcher of biomedical sciences in OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, noticed earlier last fall that the MU did not have her country's flag. Danelishvili approached Mike Mayers, the Operation Supervisor at the MU, to address the issue of adding the Georgia flag.
"I was very excited," Mayers said. "The last flag we posted was at least two or three years ago."
"[The idea of the flags] has been going on for over 50 years now," Mayers said.
The idea of the flags began during World War II when the MU was presented with a set of military and allied nation flags to commemorate the OSU men and women who were serving in the military and to recognize the 26 allied nations supporting the United States and its efforts in the war.
After the war ended, the military flags were taken down, but the allied nation flags continued to hang. Students and faculty then decided to add the flags of the founding United Nations member countries. OSU students from those countries began writing to their embassies asking for flag donations.
Once the majority of the United Nation flags were collected, other international OSU students wanted to see their countries' flags hang in the MU. As the idea grew, the MU received many more flags. The flags that hang in the MU today represent the diversity of the OSU community.
Danelishvili decided to give her country's flag to the MU because she knew people did not know much about Georgia.
"I have to explain that I am from the country Georgia, not the state," Danelishvili said. "People really didn't know much about my country."
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