Cari and Lauri Ryding always felt welcome on Strawberry Hill Road. Then they came home from vacation and discovered that the rainbow flag they had hung after the Orlando massacre had been stolen and their front porch pelted with eggs.

Cari said, “It really sent us reeling”

But what happened next reminded the couple why they loved the neighborhood in the first place. On Sunday, a squadron of children on bicycles delivered rainbow flags to house after house.

And one by one, the flags went up, transforming a swath of suburbia, more than 40 houses in all , into a brilliantly colored declaration of pride and solidarity, displayed on picket fences, garages, doorways, and decks.

Penni Rochwerger, who lives around the corner from the Rydings said, “It just happened so quickly — the whole neighborhood said, ‘Get me a flag. Get me a flag. Get me a flag. If we can stop whatever hate is out there, I think that’s really important.”

After their home was vandalized, several neighbors of a gay couple in Natick flew rainbow flags in solidarity.

Lauri Ryding said that after cleaning the eggs off her porch, she walked through the streets around her home, and she was overwhelmed by all the neighbors prominently flying the rainbow colors.

She said, “One person’s act of fear and maliciousness created such a powerful statement of love. We are very blessed, very fortunate.”

By Prakriti Neogi