MOORESTOWN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Residents in a Burlington County, New Jersey community are uniting one block at a time and using the American flag to do so.
"I'll run through the length of Main Street to Lenola Road," said Moorestown resident John Scully, who makes a daily run through town. He laces up his running shoes and grabs his keys, but he also carries the flag.
"I just really felt one day, man, I just need to get out there and do something," he said, "and what can I do?"
Scully usually runs every 9/11 and Memorial Day, but when the pandemic hit, followed by the racial unrest and national tension that broke, he decided to run more often. Every day.
"Let's put party lines aside and just come together with what really does unite us," he appealed, "which is our flag."
"Things like the American flag and some ther symbols have become politicized," said resident Kristin Brill who, with her sister and inspired by Scully, joined a community group, creating the movement called #CountryCommunityUnity.
"We started off with the concept of encouraging residents and merchants in town to hang flags," she said, "make it very visible."
"As you start to talk to people, there are so many who are thinking the same. We need healing, we to listen we to reverse the division that has become so deep," she shared.
Scully, meanwhile, has taken inspiration from President Joe Biden's message of national unity, and is asking people to join him in a run, bike or walk on President's Day, bringing the flag.