What started with an aging mural and an interest in flags has snowballed into a citywide effort to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary and its veterans on June 29.

Downtown attorney Romel L. Nicholas got the ball rolling with a series of conversations that became meetings that morphed into a crusade. Now dozens of city boosters and entities are part of what he's calling the No Name Committee, which doesn't have so much as a checking account, but is determined to pull off a signature event of the city's anniversary year on the strength of sheer civic spirit.

"It's going to end up being a huge, wonderful event," said U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills. He has supplied a conference room for the committee, is inviting dignitaries from World War I allies to the June 29 event, and is trying to arrange a jet flyover. "It's sort of vintage Pittsburgh. You get a bunch of people in the room to start to brainstorm a little, and before you know it, people start saying, 'We could do this, we could do that.'"

Last week, when an 8-year-old vinyl mural honoring Pittsburgh baseball greats came down from the underside of the Boulevard of the Allies ramp, it was the first public sign of the project. Mr. Nicholas, who was one of a group of baseball fans who engineered the placement of the mural by artist Michael Malle in 2000, approached the late Mayor Bob O'Connor about putting up a fresh canvas with the same image, along with improved lighting, at the same site, around the corner from the office of his firm, Gaitens Tucceri & Nicholas.

From that seed of an effort to improve Downtown, much grew.

Mr. Nicholas attended a meeting at which Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President Mike Edwards invited suggestions for celebrating the 250th anniversary. That brought to mind an idea he'd had years before to line the Boulevard of the Allies -- named to honor the coalition that won World War I -- with flags.

From Mr. Nicholas and a small corps of enthusiasts, a coalition grew around the concept of rededicating the Boulevard of the Allies and using the event to honor veterans. "Who doesn't think that it's an honorable thing to recall your veterans?" Mr. Nicholas said.

The veterans will be honored at and around the Boulevard of the Allies and Grant Street intersection, notably at the one-block park just south of the junction. There they'll get a meal, a commemorative coin and lapel pin courtesy of six area colleges and universities, the Common Plea restaurant and PNC. They'll be served by the Boy Scouts of America and the Marine Corps.

On the ramp to the Liberty Bridge, scouts will hold a giant flag supplied by the National Flag Foundation. In addition to the hoped-for flyover, a 21-gun salute is planned, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will play. The event will be open to the public.

The date was picked to coincide with the finish of the Tour of Pennsylvania bike race, which will pedal down the boulevard on its final circuit.

It will mean a lot to Allegheny County's 150,000 veterans, predicted Ron Conley, director of veterans affairs for the county. "I think that veterans are strong, but at the same time they're very passionate about the feeling of the country and the services that people gave to the country," he said.

The spontaneous way the event has grown is as compelling as the event itself.

"Six weeks ago, there were a few of us around the table," said Brian Goerke, director of external communications for PNC Financial Services, which is providing a stage and other infrastructure. "Now, you can't find a table big enough."

Much of the organizing manpower has been courtesy of Mr. Nicholas' 20-person firm and Lamar Advertising, which is providing the organizational expertise of Real Estate Coordinator Victoria Berdnik and a renewed baseball mural on weather-resistant vinyl.

Also on board is the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which has helped synchronize the event with the overall 250th anniversary theme. The Art Institute of Pittsburgh has designed the renditions of the flags of the World War I allies. The city of Pittsburgh is supplying brackets -- left over from the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game -- to affix them to the street lights, plus the necessary labor. Engineering firm HDR Inc. is providing technical expertise. Highmark Inc. has agreed to cover the cost of American flags on the ramp to the Liberty Bridge.

It's all being done informally with phone calls and handshakes. "People ask, 'Who do we make the check out to?'" Mr. Nicholas said. "Nobody. There's no committee to take it."