The Shadow
Pastor Johnny Mize, president of the Covington Ruritan Club, presented “Old Glory,” the flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 30, to Covington High School along with a certificate certifying the event.
The Honorable H. Morgan Griffith of the U.S. House of Representatives shipped the flag to Mize, a graduate of CHS, and Chris Jones, the assistant principal of CHS, accepted the flag on behalf of CHS.
Mize who was born in 1941 at the time that Johnny Mize, a 1981 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee was in his prime, completed his 12th grade year in 1959.
Johnny Mize retired with a MLB career batting average of .312, having hit 359 home runs during his career that began in 1936 and ended in 1953 after being interrupted 1943-1945 by his military service during World War II. Pastor Mize carries a baseball card of Johnny Mize in his billfold, one replete with Mize’s MLB statistics.
The National Ruritan Club’s headquarters is in Dublin, Va., and the Ruritan Club’s charter dates back to May 21, 1928. The first club was founded in Holand, Va.
Closing in on a century of community service, the organization now has 900 clubs spread across the country in both rural and urban areas, and the membership has grown to 25,000 members.
The purpose of the Ruritan Club is to promote fellowship, goodwill and community service in order to improve the quality of life in rural and urban areas.
Approximately, one third of Ruritan Clubs sponsor a Boy Scout of America or Girl Scout of America troop, and the organization works with the FFA and 4-H programs as well.
