SALT LAKE CITY — The Ukraine flag flying proudly atop the Utah State Capitol was manufactured at Colonial Flags in Sandy.
Earlier this week, Thomas Wright, who previously ran for Governor in Utah, purchased the flag for the capitol building. This is the first time the state of Utah has flown a foreign flag from the rooftop of the Utah State Capitol.
“Well, I love the Ukrainian people and I feel their pain,” said Wright, who served an LDS mission in Ukraine. “I was there in 1992 when they were coming out of communism, and I know their desire to have sovereignty and freedom and to have their own land and their own culture and their own heritage, and to see that now in jeopardy really is heartbreaking.”
Colonial Flag has now made hundreds of Ukraine flags in the past few weeks, and the colors of blue and yellow have taken over most of their production.
Care to learn more about the symbolism behind the #Ukraine flag 🇺🇦?
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Here's what you need to know thanks to a local vexillologist we spoke with today!@fox13 | #StandWithUkraine | @GovCox pic.twitter.com/NfH6LpwuVK
“Having to crank out all these additional Ukraine flags have definitely been a little bit of a challenge, but we’re making it,” said DeVaughn Simper, a vexillologist at Colonial Flag. “Customers have been coming in nonstop asking for Ukraine flags and wanting to show their support. And not even just flags, I mean anything with Ukraine on it, they’re all over it.”
Simper says people have been coming into Colonial Flag to not just purchase a Ukraine flag, but also to share their personal stories with the situation unfolding overseas.
“Being able to provide those things for people to show that solidarity that’s just our small way of helping,” said Simper.
