As a Military Spouse and mom of two "Army Brats", I love to read inspiring stories about kids who make a difference in the lives of our brave soldiers. It just proves there are no boundaries for what an individual (young or old) can do to make someones life brigher! -- Angela
Harms Way 4 KidsDear Families,
I recently listened to you on the Paltalk radio station and wanted to let you know about a small American hero who is making a real difference in the lives of the people she is touching. When my daughter Jenessa's ( age 12) uncle SFC Mike Chamorro was deployed to Iraq, she designed a bracelet in his honor. She then decided to make a bracelet for every family and troop who was deployed in the world. We created a website for her and the orders started flooding in. Since March 22, 2003 she has mailed over 89,000 bracelets.
Each one of these bracelets is hand made. They have six yellow beads which represent that you have a loved one "in harms way" and a red, white and blue heart bead that is cut and baked from Sculpey Clay. The heart bead represents love and patriotism for our country. Jenessa has inspired kids from her dance group, school and youth group to help with the bracelets. She also speaks to kids all over the state of Minnesota to help get them involved making the bracelets because she has over 135,000 orders. Over 40,000 have been shipped to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bosnia and Korea to troops stationed there.
We recently visited Washington DC where she went and visited the troops at Walter Reed Army Hospital. They were so inspiring and each of them was a hero. They kept telling Jenessa what a gift she was giving to them but I think the gift was given to us. Their courage was amazing and we were touched by each one of them. On the 21st -24th of May we will be traveling to Fort Hood for the second time to make bracelets with the families of the 4th ID who have loved ones deployed in Iraq. They put up a tent in front of the main PX and families come and make bracelets for themselves and their deployed troops.
I am so proud to be a parent of this child no matter how tired she gets she continues to make bracelets promising the families and troops that she will not quit until every family and troop who is deployed comes home. She has been on the Tonight Show and the Early Show but her humility through all of this inspires everyone around her to continue to help her reach her goal of providing a bracelet for every troop that is deployed. Sometimes at night when I hear her prayers I am so touched because her prayer is to find people to help her get the word out about her bracelets.
Jenessa has also received letters from dignitaries all over the world including the Queen of England, PM Tony Blair, the PM of Israel, Ariel Sharon,The King of Jordon and The First Lady but the letters that she carries close to her heart are the ones from the troops. Many of the troops write to her and tell her that they feel they have been forgotten by Americans but the bracelets remind them of the reason why they chose to serve and fight in the first place. She sends a letter with her bracelets telling the troops that if they can't wear the bracelet on their wrist they should put it in their pocket and whenever they reach in and feel it there they will know that they are heroes.
For more information about this remarkable young girl visit her website
Harms Way 4 Kids. Contact: Mr. Gregg Pinick, Principal (714) 998-5151 Ext 602 Email:
Pinick@lhsoc.orgShaunaFleming, Student (714) 282-9415 Email: SFleming@AMillionThanks.orgAlice Wax, Executive
Director, NMAM (703) 765-8613 Email: nmam@nmam.orgWebsite:
http://www.amillionthanks.org/If you're PCSing to Offutt AFB, I'm an expert in that arena - let me help!
www.HuskerHomeFinder.com/Military
# posted by
Angela May @ 2:01 PM
