A Mission of Gratitude

A fourth-grader took a crayon and used blue cardboard paper as her canvas. She painted a brown bald eagle, then mounted it perfectly on a carefully crafted card.

The handwritten letter is one of about 800,000 that have poured into the main office at Lutheran High School in Orange. They continue to arrive in different shapes and forms, delivering the same message: Thank you.

“The best thing for soldiers is to get mail. That is their gold,” said Shauna Fleming, a freshman at Lutheran High School who launched a campaign this spring to thank American troops for fighting the war on terrorism. “It’s what they want the most.”

“A Million Thanks,” which began in March as a school project, quickly became a national campaign.

While Shauna’s mission is 200,000 cards shy of being complete, the 15-year-old is not complaining. “I now know that nothing is impossible,” she said while sorting through the letters at school, “even if it first seems like it is.”

Four months ago, Shauna was going about her daily high school routine when she decided to write a letter of gratitude to a soldier in Iraq. She wanted the troops to know she was grateful for their bravery, thankful that they were willing to stand in the line of fire, day after day, for her freedom.

But Shauna didn’t know to whom to address the letter. She doesn’t have family or close friends serving in Iraq.

“So many people kept saying that they wanted to thank a soldier,” she said, “but really didn’t know how.”

“Valentines for Troops,” founded three years ago by her father, Mike, served as the catalyst for “A Million Thanks,” Shauna said. Over the last two years, she helped her father distribute more than 1.5 million valentines to U.S. troops.

Shauna chose to launch her project in May, during National Military Appreciation Month. But she pitched the idea to classmates in March and then quickly began to collect and distribute mail for the nation’s current and former troops.

The project was supposed to last only through May. But when she began to receive national attention, Shauna and Lutheran High Principal Gregg Pinick decided to keep the campaign running year-round.

“We should be thanking them every month, not just one month out of the year,” Shauna said. “They go through so many hardships. This is the least we can do.”

Pinick said he is amazed at the attention the campaign has received.

“I’m really proud of Shauna and our community,” Pinick said. “I’ve been getting really neat e-mails from people saying thanks for letting her run with the idea.”

Shauna’s efforts have landed her on radio stations around the country, and she has been interviewed by national news networks, including ABC and Fox. She recently began her own weekly Internet radio show on wsRadio.com.

NASCAR and country music star John Michael Montgomery have also endorsed Shauna’s efforts. Montgomery’s single “Letters from Home” became Shauna’s theme song.

During Memorial Day weekend, Shauna was invited to the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. While Montgomery sang during the race’s opening ceremony, Shauna distributed letters to 75 servicemen and women invited as NASCAR’s guests. They each received 10 letters.

“It was so touching to hand these letters to them personally,” she said.

The ambitious teenager is modest about the effect her project is having on military personnel. She doesn’t get intimidated or frazzled by the amount of responsibility she has taken on. “My goal is for everyone to know about this,” she said. “And for it to become available to everyone so we can get as many letters as possible.”

She continues to hold “sorting parties” every Saturday at school for classmates who want to help. In one day, about 50 students read through 20,000 letters, she said. They proofread the letters before distributing them to bases across the country and abroad.

Freshman Allison See, Shauna’s best friend and self-appointed campaign manager, has never missed a sorting party and is always ready to rally support to the cause.

“It really is a great campaign,” Allison, 15, said. “We just want the troops to know that we appreciate everything they do and that we support them.”

Shauna has received letters from every state in the country, and from Thailand, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands. Her effort has inspired local organizations to donate T-shirts and signs. It even motivated one man to donate $1,000 for postage.

On any given day, she chats online with soldiers serving in Iraq. Everett Headley, a religious-program specialist with the U.S. Army, contacted Shauna two months ago from his base in Iraq. He wanted to personally thank her for initiating the project and for boosting his morale.

While chatting with the troops, Shauna learned that many of them wanted CDs and DVDs. She’s now accepting donations of used music CDs and DVDs to go with the letters.

“It’s a form of relaxation for them,” she said. “And they get tired of listening to the same music over and over again.”

While Shauna has collected keepsakes from troops, perhaps the most telling piece of memorabilia is a U.S. Army star emblem, given to her in North Carolina by a three-star general.

She often reflects on the principles it represents: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

She said the medal is typically reserved for military personnel.

“I was so amazed that he took the time to give that to me, especially since I am only a civilian,” she said. “I carry it with me everywhere I go.”

Letters can be sent to A Million Thanks, c/o Lutheran High School of Orange County, 2222 N. Santiago Blvd., Orange, CA 92867. The website is www. AMillionThanks.org.