A special handcrafted American flag now hangs in the main hallway of Forrest General Hospital.
The flag, known as the Heroic Flag, is the creation of 16-year-old Lorenzo Liberti of Lakewood Home, Florida. Liberti and his family chose one hospital in each state that has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to receive one of Lorenzo’s handcrafted flags.
Liberti, a high school sophomore, said the idea for the flags came to him in 2018 when he and a group from his church went to feed the homeless in his community. It was here that he met a homeless veteran who really changed his life. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Liberti has now added health care workers to his support list.
He crafts the flags, which come in four sizes, out of pine planks, which are glued, carved, stained and torched. The process for a three-foot flag, which weighs a little more than 12 pounds, takes about 15 to 20 hours. The creation of the flags has become a group effort with the assistance of family and friends. His mother and sister both like to do the painting with Lorenzo working after school, on weekends and whenever he has time. Altogether, Lorenzo has crafted more than 800 flags and shipped them across the country.
The flags going to hospitals are numbered with the Forrest General flag being No. 33. For more information, visit Liberti’s website at heroicflags.com, where you can see his flags and find out more about his GoFundMe project.
