The production of a flag to represent the town of Newton has been a four month process that began in June, with community meetings about what symbols the community found meaningful, and what they would want to see on a city flag. After many discussions, a contest was opened to the community, allowing people to submit their own designs for the flag. After all of the designs were collected, they were posted online for the public to vote for their favorite flag design. Once the public had cast their votes, the top designs were brought to a panel of judges to be evaluated to determine the final contest winner. 

The flag revealing ceremony took place on Thursday Oct. 8, and many members of the community attended, excited to see which design won. The new flag represents the town with a simple design of yellow railroad tracks in an “X” formation, and wheat stalks in the cross-section, on a black background.

“I think the simplicity of it [is what I like most], because it’s not super overly complicated and our main thing is trains, we are the Railers, so it makes sense,” senior Jacob Phillips said.

Around 65 entries were submitted in the contest, but the winning flag was submitted by Ashleigh Lakey, a native Newtonian community member. Lakey’s design will become the official flag of Newton for the foreseeable future. 

“I look back on the last like three years [since] this flag was designed, and looking back at the process movement that we created around it and I see a lot of things,” Lakey said. “I see a banner for the community and see a community that has come together, I see unity, I see pride in a hometown and this banner that is going to lead us into the next several years.”