For the past 19 years, Silvia Madriaga, Realtor with Walton County’s ResortQuest Real Estate, has been putting 1,000 flags around both her own and neighboring counties every Fourth of July.
In preparation for this year’s festivities, the Florida Realtor has been placing American flags on the streets of homes in her local neighborhood, according to a report from The Walton Sun.
“We go walking with stacks of flags in our arms,” Madriaga said; she also told the local paper she also attaches cards that read “Happy Birthday, America!”
“We get cheers and waves from the passersby. We look forward to putting the flags out, and people look forward to seeing them,” she said.
In Ohio, a real estate company has taken matters into its own hands and donated 10,000 American flags to decorate homes all over the Mid-Ohio Valley.
According to the Morgan County Herald, Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate Center, which manages homes for over 10 counties in Ohio and Virginia, donates flags to different towns in its region so that residents can decorate their homes and businesses with patriotic signs.
“These flags will be among the 10,000 that our real estate company places throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley to celebrate our freedom and honor members of the military for their service in maintaining that freedom,” Realtor Cinda Erickson said to the local paper about the 500 flags that they donated to one small town.
This flag-placing tradition was started by Berkshire broker Terry Connolly, who served as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War and wanted to honor American troops through his work in real estate for the holiday.
Berkshire agents also vowed to pick up any flags that homeowners did not wish to keep after the holiday.