{"id":285117,"date":"2026-07-02T18:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/285117\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T18:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:48:09","slug":"south-queens-residents-paint-patriotic-fire-hydrants-ahead-of-america-250-celebrations-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/285117\/","title":{"rendered":"South Queens residents paint \u2018patriotic\u2019 fire hydrants ahead of America 250 celebrations \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Red,\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Red, white and Blue fire hydrants in Council District 32. <\/p>\n

Photo via Council Member Joann Ariola<\/p>\n

South Queens residents have created \u201cpatriotic\u201d red, white and blue fire hydrants throughout the neighborhood following an initiative from Council Member Joann Ariola and the Ozone Park<\/a> Home Depot.<\/p>\n

Ariola partnered with the Home Depot<\/a> throughout June to create do-it-yourself paint kits for residents in Council District 32, encouraging residents to turn fire hydrants outside their home into \u201cpatriotic points of pride\u201d ahead of America 250 celebrations on July 4.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto via Council Member Joann Ariola<\/p>\n

Ariola said she spoke with members of the FDNY to ensure that the initiative could be carried out \u201csafely and correctly,\u201d describing the effort as a fitting way to celebrate America\u2019s landmark birthday. She added that she could remember similar colorful celebrations when America celebrated its bicentennial in 1976.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major milestone in the history of our nation, and we thought what better way to celebrate than by helping my constituents to give their neighborhoods a patriotic face lift,\u201d Ariola said in a statement.\u00a0\u201cI can remember all of the festivities and the painted hydrants in the community back when the country celebrated its bicentennial in 1976, and I wanted to bring that same kind of excitement and energy to this year\u2019s celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing those hydrants back then really reminded us all of just how much we love this country, and seeing so many families doing that now brings all those feelings back once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto via Council Member Joann Ariola<\/p>\n

Ariola and Home Depot provided around 50 DIY kits to local residents to beautify the area ahead of Independence Day, with each kit supplying specific instruction on how to appropriately paint hydrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach kit came with specific instructions about what kind of hydrants could be painted, and what parts of the hydrants could be painted without impeding our heroes,\u201d Ariola said. \u201cAnd from what I\u2019ve seen, everyone really listened to those instructions and the results are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Lynch, executive vice president of the Belle Harbor Property Owners Association, credited Ariola for spearheading the project and promoting patriotism in the local community.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is it so great to see so much patriotism going on in the community,\u201d Lynch said.\n<\/p>\n

Howard Beach<\/a> resident Nick Rotundo painted a hydrant near his house and said the neighborhood is \u201clucky\u201d that the community has embraced the patriotic spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe red, white and blue hydrants are adding to the patriotism that our neighborhood shows year-round. I loved painting mine,\u201d Rotundo said. \u201cWe are lucky to have a community that really embraces the spirit of our nation, and is so proud to show it all off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red, white and Blue fire hydrants in Council District 32. Photo via Council Member Joann Ariola South Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[33453,40367,55762,48307,55294,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-285117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-america-250","tag-council-member-joann-ariola","tag-fire-hydrants","tag-home-depot","tag-july-4","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}