Area residents are encouraged to submit their designs for the first ever City of Norwich flag. The final design is anticipated to be announced on City of Norwich Founders' Day on April 17. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

NORWICH — The City of Norwich has put together a Flag Initiative Committee to oversee the development of the first ever City of Norwich flag, and they’re asking area residents to contribute their ideas.

Many cities across the country have their own official flag, but City of Norwich Mayor Brian Doliver said Norwich has never had one. The idea to develop one came from City Historian Agnes Eaton last year, as a way to make local history and celebrate Founders’ Day.

"A couple years ago I had a couple people call that collect flags and say, ‘do you have a city flag, and if you do, could we maybe get one?’ And through my research I could find that we’ve ever had a city flag," she said. "Then by chance I saw the article about Syracuse that is redoing their city flag. So I thought that was a nice way to do Founders’ Day, especially since we’ve had some interest in a city flag in the previous couple of years."

Founders’ Day is on April 17, and Doliver said the goal is to announce the final city flag design that day this year.

Residents in the area are encouraged to get creative and come up with their own design for the city flag. The city’s website, NorwichNewYork.net, lists five guidelines when designing a flag: keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, use two to three basic colors, no lettering or seals, and be distinctive or be related. Links are also provided to other resources for flag design.

Additionally, design submissions must also explain why elements of the design were chosen and how they represent the City of Norwich.

Both adults and children are welcome to submit designs, and the initiative is not just limited to City of Norwich residents. To submit a flag design, email it to historian@norwichnewyork.net or mail it to City of Norwich, Attn: Historian, One City Plaza, Norwich, NY 13815.

The committee is also working on collaborating with local schools to allow students to craft their own designs to submit.

“Maybe some of the kids would put together designs of what they think and the committee could look at that. But also we’ll be mindful of some of the people who have lived here their whole life, older people, what their thoughts are,” said Doliver. “I’m really excited to see what their ideas are, how they see the world. And I think that’s really important. We should get ideas from all different generations.”

As designs come in, the Flag Initiative Committee will review and discuss them, and make a final choice on a single submission or an incorporation of multiple submitted designs.

“We’ll take all the ideas and kind of formulate. Maybe it will be a design, or a combination of two or three different designs. So it’s hard to say, but we’re kind of giving that free reign,” said Doliver. “We might pick out ten ideas. So we could, you know, this symbol or that symbol. We could institute three, four, or five ideas onto the one flag.”

Doliver and Eaton both hope the Flag Initiative will create a sense of community collaboration and pride.

“This is a nice way to show, physically show, some support for our community," said Eaton. "It’s much nicer than a committee just saying, okay, this is our design, and that’s it. Because there’s so many creative people out there, they might think of something that’s out of the box or that we haven’t thought of. So why not get the ideas flowing with everybody?"

For more information on the Flag Initiative, visit NorwichNewYork.net/flag-design.php.