Palisades Flag Raised With Great Fanfare

More than 200 VIPs (Very Important Palisadians) gathered at the Village Green on Sunday, April 13, to celebrate the raising of the new Pacific Palisades flag. 

As the Pacific Palisades Oom Pa Pa Band played, Honorary Mayor Jake Steinfeld introduced the flag contest winners, Sean Lim and Will Dintenfass.

“We had over 230 entries in the contest, and these guys came out on top,” Mayor Jake said.

Lim and Dintenfass, who co-designed the flag, shared how their longtime friendship began.

“We met at Palisades Elementary,” Lim said, “and we’ve been friends for years. We’ve skateboarded all around Pacific Palisades.”

Dintenfass added that he was particularly thrilled to be a part of Palisades history.

“You know, I was a flag monitor for three years,” Dintenfass said to generous applause.

Mayor Jake presented a giant flag-sized check for $1,000 – which he funded – to the pair, who were decked out in flag hats and T-shirts manufactured by Palisadian Steve Parris. Starting June 1, people can buy the flag hats and shirts at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA.

The first $1,000 earned from the sales will go to Lim and Dintenfass’s designated charities: HelpHOPELive in honor of Larry Dubey, who suffered a spinal cord injury, and Tree People, which plants trees in Los Angeles, including Temescal Canyon.

Monies earned beyond that amount will go to the Y.

With the help of our brave local firefighters from Station 69, the pair raised the flag while Mayor Jake’s ‘Minister of Media’ Rich Cronin led the crowd in singing “You’re A Brand New Flag,” an original composition created just for this special day.

Local luminaries in attendance included developer Rick Caruso, Honorary Fire Chief Charlie Meister, Carol Pfannkuche from the YMCA, Palisades High principal Dr. Pam Magee, PaliHi art teacher Catherine Villagran and Marge and Bob Gold of the Village Green.

After the flag was raised, it waved gently in the wind on the flagpole at the intersection of Sunset and Swarthmore.

Oom Pa Pa band member Greg Victoroff, a Via Bluffs resident, summed up what the new flag means to the Palisades.

“It’s just wonderful to have a symbol of the beauty of nature that we’re all so privileged to enjoy,” Victoroff said.