American flags being used as 'pick-me-up' in Roxborough

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PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After the September 11 attacks, the entire country was painted red, white and blue as the nation tried to recover from that tragedy.

In particular, American flags were found almost everywhere you looked.

During the coronavirus pandemic, with a lot of people feeling down right now, Bob Enslin came up with a similar idea while talking with other people.

"We talked about the impact the American flag had after 9/11 and we thought it might be a nice thing to do for the community to blanket Roxborough in flags as a pick me up," he said.

So Enslin and a couple dozen volunteers planted thousands of them in the ground recently.

"We went up and down Henry Avenue and Ridge Avenue from Hermit Street all the way to the city limits," he explained. "We covered about five miles with American flags."

With part of the goal being to lift people's spirits, Enslin said mission accomplished.

"The people who helped put them up were getting such thank yous from people," he told KYW Newsradio. "All the volunteers who worked putting the flags up for hours were thanking me over and over again for letting them be part of it because it was such a tremendous thing they thought. We had people pulling up crying thanking us when we were doing it."

Some of those flags have a message attached to them that says, "We are America Strong and We Will Prevail," with words of support written under that.

"A thank you and keep the people in your prayers, the first responders and doctors and nurses," added Enslin, "all the people who are keeping things moving, trying to get to the bottom of this and end it. They deserve all the praise in the world."

Enslin and his group placed over 2,000 flags initially, but heavy winds last week knocked a lot of them over. So everyone was back out there this past weekend putting them back in place.

He encourages anybody to add flags of their own to the mix.

"You know, let this be the start," he said. “The flag in itself is a sign of hope."

Enslin expects to keep these flags right where they are for the long haul.

Some owners are putting American flags outside their Roxborough businesses and residents outside their homes too.