Some local men are showing their patriotism while sprucing up a
section of West Washington Street.

What started out as symbolic gesture by Bradford City Police
Officer Dave Feely – who along with neighbor Hal Kenyon placed a
series of American flags on utility poles outside St. Bernard
Elementary and Middle School for the funeral of Master Sgt. Thomas
Maholic in July – has grown into a community effort, with Bradford
Masonic Lodge #749 slated to take over the care of the banners.

“They are not my flags, they are everybody’s flags,” Feely said,
adding after they were removed for a little while, “people started
clamoring for them.”

Now, the flags – which will eventually number 15 – will be under
the care of the lodge, according to treasurer Bruce Sherwin.

“I’m a veteran myself, and when I drove up West Washington
Street and saw the flags were down, it tore my heart out,” Sherwin
said, noting he then began inquiring around town about how to
replace them. “It got me so upset … it looks so beautiful up there
when they (flags) are up.”

The story began last month, in the days leading up to the
Maholic funeral.

“I was driving home from work, I live across the street (from
the school), and said we have to do something,” Feely said in the
days leading up to the Maholic funeral. “We knew those creatures
were coming from Kansas and we needed to show our patriotism. We
wanted to make a little avenue of flags.”

The funeral, which was held at the school, was picketed by
protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Also in
attendance were the Patriot Guard Riders, who blocked the
protesters from the view of the family.

It was then that Feely went in search of a group of flags. After
pricing them at a few locations around town, Feely arrived at
Wal-Mart in Foster Brook, where he met up with store manager Ron
Orris.

“Ron told me he thought it was a great idea and started loading
me up with flags,” Feely said, noting there were nine flag kits
available, including the poles and holders.

For his part, Orris said “when Dave mentioned he wanted to put
the flags up, I just thought it was fantastic he wanted to do that.
We just wanted to do our part. It was important that we helped the
family as much as we could. We wanted to salute Sgt. Maholic for
his service to our country.”

Everything seemed to be set, but there was still one hang up
left.

“I went home and started to hang them up, but didn’t have a
ladder big enough,” Feely said with a chuckle.

That’s where Kenyon, and Feely’s 8-year-old daughter, Joanne,
joined the effort.

“With our (flag) kits, ladders and drills, we went about putting
the flags up,” Feely said, noting “I hung them as tall as I could
reach on my tiptoes. After the service was done, Hal asked me if I
was going to take the flags down. We decided to leave them up. When
people were driving up there, we wanted them to get the full effect
of the flags waving.”

However, Mother Nature would soon put a crimp in those plans, as
the wind kept playing havoc with the flags. Feely said several
experiments later, “it just wasn’t working well, so they came
down.”

“At that time, a couple of people asked me about them,” Feely
said, adding Sherwin had begun to inquire at the police station
about what could be done to restore the flags to the poles. “People
started to get antsy about having the flags up.”

According to Feely, after arriving back home over the weekend
from Pittsburgh, he decided to hang the flags back up – all 11 of
them.

Now, Sherwin said, the Masons are looking to take over the
maintenance of the flags.

“I must have called everybody trying to find out what could be
done,” Sherwin said. “It’s hallowed ground up there. Being a
veteran myself, I can really appreciate it.”

Sherwin said the local lodge is “going to assume full
responsibility for those flags. I told Dave to give me whatever the
bill is (to restore the flags and add more). We are going to
support it 100 percent.”

To that end, Feely said he is looking at putting up four more
flags – for a total of 15 – stretching from St. Bernard Cemetery to
near Dorothy Lane.