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Alan Horbal, center, picks up flags donated by Ocean State Job Lot.

Ocean State Job Lot Donates Flags to Fly in North Adams

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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.
 
Tax-deductible donations can be sent to Kempville Flags Inc., 458 East Main St., North Adams, MA 01247.
 

Tags: american flag,   donations,   

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Youth for the Future: AYJ Fund Volunteers

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — For 14 years, generations of AYJ Fund youth volunteers have worked to support families fighting cancer — one smile at a time. 
 
The non-profit was founded in memory of Anna Yan Ji Arabia, who became an angel at the age of 16 after a 3 1/2-year battle with gliomatosis cerebri. 
 
Today, the young adults who step up to volunteer for the organization carry forward the positive and outgoing spirit for which Anna is remembered.
 
The work these teens do to bring smiles to children with cancer, while organizing and aiding in fundraising efforts, has earned them the iBerkshires.com Youth for the Future designation.
 
Youth for the Future is a 12-month series that honors young individuals that have made an impact on their community. This year's sponsor is Patriot Car Wash. Nominate a youth here
 
Throughout the year, the AYJ Fund organizes initiatives like musical bingo, care packages through its Smiles Program, and bake sales to uplift kids with cancer, help them stay connected to friends and school, and support brain cancer research in the quest for a cure.
 
One of its biggest events is the "Once Upon a Dream" Children's Princess Concert, providing children the opportunity to meet their favorite princesses, and some princes, while raising funds to support the fund's mission. 
 
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