What's With the American Flags on Atlantic Avenue?

Every week we set out to answer a question submitted by one of our readers as part of our column.

Last week, we received an email from John Wilder, who wanted to know who was behind the dozens of American flags that recently went up along Atlantic Avenue.

John wrote: "My wife and I were driving home last night along Atlantic Avenue. We have noticed a number of new-looking American Flags being attached to homes, trees, fences mostly along Atlantic Ave. These flags seem to be new and placed in random locations.  Do you know if these flags signify anything more than the usual patriotic reasons to display the American Flag?"

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Ticehurst Lane resident Katie Reilly said she dreamed of driving down Atlantic Avenue and seeing American flags at all of the houses and businesses along the way.

So, in March, Reilly set out to make her dream a reality and began a campaign to have American Flags installed - free of charge - at homes and businesses along the route.

After hand-delivering more than 150 letters, Reilly said she received responses from 61 residents and 10 local business owners - all of whom said they'd be happy to have a flag installed.

"The responses were heartfelt messages on my home phone saying how thrilled and honored they would be to fly our American flag," Reilly said, adding that she enjoyed getting to know those who responded.

Reilly said the effort to have the flags installed would have never gotten off the ground without the help of Randy Krivitsky, who volunteered to put them up, and David Rodgers, head of the Marblehead Veterans Administration.

Reilly said she'd also like to send a special thank you to Green's on Atlantic Avenue for giving her a "superb price on high quality flags."

"I really want to spend the rest of my life saying thank you to our troops," Reilly said. "This is just a fun way I thought we could do that."

Atlantic Avenue residents and business owners who are interested in having a flag put up are encouraged to call Reilly at 781-631-3047.

If you have a question for us, no matter how strange it may seem, let us know and we'll try to find the answers.