Nearly three decades ago, Ebby Halliday Realtor Nell Anne Hunt moved into an Irving neighborhood where she was greeted with the friendliest of neighbors. She wanted to show her appreciation, so she bought a couple of hundred American flags and put them in their yards to celebrate Independence Day. They liked them so much, she purchased 400 the next year. Before long, neighbors were making donations to buy more and volunteering to help install them.
Next week, for the twenty-ninth consecutive year, Hunt will again oversee the installation of flags. Church groups, Boy Scouts, and plenty of local families take part in the flag-planting efforts. The annual event is now known as The Great Flag Caper, and the number of flags has surpassed 40,000. They will be installed along the entire 10.5 miles stretch of MacArthur Blvd in Irving.
“The idea is to make sure that there is no ‘North Irving’ or ‘South Irving. We’re just one great American city,” Hunt says.
In a normal year, Hunt’s house would be party central on Independence Day. Everyone would gather for a patriotic potluck and sing patriotic songs. Oftentimes there would be proclamations from state or local officials as well as small prizes for things like the person who put out the most flags.
The party was canceled last year due to COVID-19. She agonized over whether to throw a party this year but ultimately decided not to out of an abundance of caution. She says she would have just hated it if someone got sick, or heaven forbid, her party became a super spreader event. Hopefully next year things can return to normal.
For Hunt, flags are now a part of her life throughout the year. She sponsors a “Why I love my country” program at local elementary schools. She and her organization also provide flags for events like school assemblies and veteran’s cemetery decorating on Memorial Day. And thanks to decades of experience, she’s found the perfect flag brand that can be reused multiple times so long as it’s not placed near something damaging like an irrigation sprinkler.
Over the years Hunt has received many thanks from locals. College kids returning from school have shared their fond childhood memories of the Fourth of July flags. Other people have moved away from the area and contacted her about starting their own Flag Caper.
“We have little pockets of ‘Caper people’ every now and then,” she says.
One time a police officer contacted Hunt and asked her if she was the “flag lady.” A young man had apparently started taking all of the flags downs. The officers wanted to know how much they cost because the value of the damage could determine if the suspect was charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.
Hunt responded that they were only 33 cents a piece at the time, but they were “priceless” to her. The suspect had never been in trouble before. With Hunt’s blessing, the officer let him go after making him put the flags back and talking to him about how much the flag means to many people.
“I told him that was the best way ever he could have handled it,” she recalled.
While her devotion to the red, white and blue is what many people know her for, that hasn’t stopped her from succeeding in real estate for 35 years. Once someone suggested she included her business card with the flags. She said the person just didn’t get it. That flags were meant to show appreciation for the United States, not to be used as a marketing tool.
“That’s not what this is about,” she said. “This is really personal to me.”
That being said, her colleagues have been extremely supportive. The late Ebby Halliday donated a sizable sum to The Great Flag Caper to make sure it would always go on. Her Irving-based Ebby Halliday team also helps install flags on a three-mile stretch of MacArthur close to their office.
Hunt says that The Great Flag Caper has become something meaningful to a lot of people. It attracts a diverse group of volunteers that includes longtime neighbors, military personnel, and recent immigrants among others. While there may be many things diving people today, she says their commonalities bring them together for this event. Everyone has a shared desire for a nice home, a good job and an education for their kids.
“When you get down to it, that’s what everybody wants. And everybody wants everyone else to have the same things,” she says. “We just concentrate on that instead of our differences, and everybody has a good time.”
