KRISTI WELLER of New York Mills emailed me this morning asking for help in publicizing a project her 14-year-old daughter, Heather, is undertaking for Veterans’ Day.
For the fourth year, Heather is gathering thank you notes for her “Thank a Veteran” program. You can help by writing and emailing a thank you to
veteranthankyou@gmail.com. But hurry. Heather is planning to deliver the emails and handwritten cards she’s collected on Sunday, November 11, Veterans’ Day, to veterans’ homes in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota.
This ambitious eighth grader has collected and distributed more than 8,000 thank yous to veterans and soldiers in three years. How great is that?
Buried in the details of Heather’s charitable work for veterans, I found a particularly profound piece of information shared by her mother. Heather has been teaching 30 students in a 4-H Cloverbud class about gratitude for our veterans. The kindergartners through second graders have made thank you cards that Heather will deliver.
And in the process of teaching these young 4-Hers, Kristi says her daughter learned this: “…most of them thought that a veteran was someone who took care of animals. Kind of sad.”
That is why we need passionate youth such as Heather who appreciate and support veterans through projects like “Thank a Veteran,” “Holiday Mail for Heroes,” Quilts of Valor,” “Project New Hope” and more. Heather educates, speaks, promotes, crafts, thanks.
And she’s planning, too, to gather veterans’ stories for the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.
Won’t you join Heather in thanking a veteran for his/her service to our country? Again, email your message of gratitude (include your name, town and state) by this Saturday to:
veteranthankyou@gmail.com
Source: Minnesota Prairie Roots
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/bolnq6u
