BEACH LAKE -- A man in Wayne County turned a broken box spring into an American symbol and posted a picture of it on Facebook. Now that wooden American flag has made the man a local business owner in just three months.
Ryan Thumann, 29, has spent his entire life working at his father's family-owned business, the Central House Family Resort in Beach Lake. Three months ago, Thumann took on a whole new challenge and started his own business in Wayne County.
"Whatever break I get, I come down here and get what I can get done," Thumann said.
Working at a resort means things often go wrong. Over the years Thumann has learned his way around a workshop. He now uses the resort's space as his office.
"We have to do plumbing to woodworking to welding to feeding the ducks," Thumann joked.
When it was time to get rid of an old broken box spring, Thumann had an idea.
"Burning it from the cottage and ended up taking it apart, and I wanted to make something so I ended up making an American flag and posted it on Facebook and it blew up from there," Thumann explained.
Three months later, that idea is now a booming business. It is called Grain to Glory Flag Company, and just Tuesday afternoon, Thumann was working on 18 orders. He has made close to 200 flags for Facebook friends, folks around town, and even guests at the resort.
"We saw them. We loved the way they looked, and we thought it would be very appropriated to hang a beautiful American flag up on our building so that's why we hung it up and there should be more American flags flying," said Donna Grosso of Beach Lake.
Other local spots in town are supporting Ryan and his flag business as well. Just down the road at Pine Grove Cottages, they're displaying a four by eight-foot flag, and plan to order more.
"We love to support local businesses and we're hoping to bring Ryan lots more of people buying his flags," Grosso said.
As part owner of Pine Grove Cottages, Grosso says guests at her vacation gem love the addition, and sometimes even go home with one of their own. Thumann says it takes about four hours to make one flag.
"It's just an honor to have something that we made out of wood hang in someone's house as a decorative piece and it's America," Thumann said.
You can order your own Grain to Glory flag by clicking here.