A priceless $10.25

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Shane Sharp
  • 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFPN) --  Much has been said recently about our nation’s military and the operations it is involved in. Some people are supportive, while others are not so supportive, and each has his own way of showing it.

Three local girls demonstrated their support by raising money to help the deployed people in uniform.

At a recent promotion-recognition ceremony here, Marissa Uhlhorn, 10, Alicia Drum, 9, and Janae Kirschke, 10, passed a small folded letter to Chief Master Sgt. Vance Clarke, the 21st Space Wing’s command chief master sergeant.

The letter read:

“Dear Air Force, We have some money that we gathered up for the troops. Please send this to them so we can support them. If you would please send this to them it would be awesome! Thank you for your help. We have $10.25 for them. We hope it really helps. We are very grateful for all the troops fighting for our country.”

Below their names was taped a $10 bill and a quarter.

“When they gave it to me and I read it, it was truly one of the most touching moments of my life,” said Clarke. “To see the true innocence in their giving when they expected nothing in return was a moving experience.”

The idea for the donation originated at a going-away party for Janae who was moving to Washington. Her father is in the Army and was reassigned to the Pentagon.

“We got together at her going-away party and thought we wanted to do something for the troops,” said Alicia, whose cousin is in the Army serving in Iraq. “We decided to raise some money, so we went around asking people for a donation.”

“Everyone at the party was a little surprised,” said Julie Drum, Alicia’s mother. “We thought they were joking until they came back around to collect the money.”

Once the money was collected, they had to figure out how to get it to the troops.

“We wanted to send it over to them, but we didn’t know where to send it,” said Marissa, who is the daughter of a local pastor. “So we decided to just give it to them here.”

After Janae had moved, Marissa and Alicia typed up the letter, printed it out, and taped the money to it. Alicia’s father, Master Sgt. Brandy Drum, was being promoted during the ceremony, and the girls thought it would be a good opportunity to turn in the donation.

“We went to the ceremony for my dad, and (Clarke) seemed like the most important guy with the most stripes, so we gave it to him,” said Alicia.

“I’m thankful we have children that actually care about what’s going on,” said Brandy Drum, who works in the Air Force Space Command manpower and organization division. “For them to be aware and care enough to make an effort is great.”

Much of the girls’ awareness comes from school. The three attended Salem Lutheran School in Colorado Springs. Many of the students there have parents in the military, so the children are no strangers to deployments and life in the military.

“They see day to day what kids go through with parents deployed,” said Julie Drum. “Even the children that don’t have parents in the military see how it is for those kids whose parents are gone.”

“I’m very proud of my daughter and her friends,” said Daneen Uhlhorn, Marissa’s mother. “The war has been a big thing for quite a few kids with deployed parents, and we remember them in prayers. So I’m not too surprised the girls wanted to help. These are some go-getter girls. When they have an idea, they run with it.”

A donation of $10.25 may not seem like a lot, but there is much more to it than cash value. According to Clarke, who passed the money along to the Red Cross, the donation letter sends a strong message of support and appreciation to the military.

“If we made a copy of that letter and put it in the pocket of every deployed soldier, sailor, airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine, they would have no doubt that they are loved and supported here at home,” he said.