NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — With a little help from Ocean State Job Lot, resident Alan Horbal secured 200 American flags to hang from utility poles throughout the city.

 

Every year, Horbal buys hundreds of flags in preparation for Memorial Day. But with Memorial Day being over a month away, stores were not fully stocked.

 

Enter David Sarlitto, executive director of the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation.

 

According to a statement from Ocean State, Sarlitto took a road trip to multiple store locations to collect the flags Horbal needed, without depleting store supplies.

 

After many stops and more than six hours of driving round trip, Sarlitto delivered — and donated — 200 flags to Horbal at the end of March.

 

Horbal, a local historian, began some years ago placing flags along Kemp Avenue and East Main Street. Last year, his nonprofit group Kempville Flags Inc. raised enough in donations and volunteer time to fly 304 3-foot by 5-foot flags.

 

Memorial Day is May 31.