May 2005
Virtue In Action
High School Student Organizes One Million Letters of Thanks
V i rt u e i n ac t i o n
f o s t e r i n g c i t i z e n s h i p t h r o u g h c h a r ac t e r e d u c at i o n
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May is National Military Appreciation Month, a time to honor and give thanks to all those who
serve us and our country through military service. Throughout the month, holidays such as Memorial Day
and Armed Forces Day help us to honor the duty and sacrifice of those who work to ensure our security,
to protect our freedom, and to advance the freedom of others. In this lesson we will look at the story of
one high-school sophomore whose desire to say thanks to the men and women of our armed forces led
to a rather extraordinary effort that has directly touched the lives of over 2 million people. Her story also
highlights how the virtues of perseverance, leadership, teamwork and hard work can help us to achieve high
and worthy goals
a Million thanks
Shauna Fleming never
thought that a little school
project would make her famous and give her a way to
meet the stars. Shauna grew
up in a family environment
where her parents emphasized showing gratitude
to the military personnel
serving at the military base
close to her home in Orange, California. For years
Shauna’s father organized
valentine cards for thousands of servicemen and women.
In May of her freshman year, Shauna’s father challenged
her to do something to express gratitude to those serving
in the military. Shauna decided to start a service project to
send letters of thanks to the troops in Iraq. Shauna comments that, “People are very opinionated about the war in
Iraq. But no matter what your political beliefs are, the fact
is that young people these days are risking their lives—and
you have to respect that.”
Shauna had the idea to get other students and schools
involved, and asked her dad how many letters she should
set as her goal. He jokingly answered back: 1 million. But
his daughter thought “A Million Thanks” campaign was
a great idea. Mike Fleming admitted, “I never imagined
anything to this extent…I’m just glad my daughter is
someone who likes to take the initiative.”
turning a Vision into reality
She approached her principal, Gregg Pinick, to present the
idea of the letter campaign as a school service project. He
expressed support: “I can’t think of a better way for students to express themselves for the sacrifices made by the
men and women in our military, than to try to collect and
distribute letters of love and appreciation. The students
are not asking people to support any military cause, but to
take time and write a special thank you letter to our service members for the work they do and for their sacrifices
to maintain the freedom we enjoy in this country.”
Imagine the effort it would take to write, collect and send
out one million letters. Shauna knew her vision was
worth the effort, but also knew she couldn’t do it on her
own. Shauna and the other leaders of the project demonstrated true leadership by expressing their vision in a
way that motivated others to help. With their leadership,
fellow classmates worked in Saturday mail-sorting parties.
Shauna’s family, including grandparents, participated.
People sent donations along with their letters, to help pay
for the postage and for advertising the effort.
The value of the vision, the aggressiveness of the goal of
one million letters, and the students’ intensity in working to achieve the goal even motivated celebrities to help.
CSI star Gary Sinise arranged for a surprise meeting
with Shauna and spent time talking about their mutual
attempts to foster compassion for the troops in Iraq.
Country music star John Michael Montgomery donated
his hit song, “Letters from Home” to be used as the
million thanks campaign theme song. NASCAR agreed
to feature her in a pre-race show about military appreciation, and agreed to let Shauna set up letter writing
booths at NASCAR races.
counting to 1 million
Shauna’s own hard work and dedication carried her
through late nights working on the website, answering emails, setting up letter writing booths at fairs,
and doing local and national media interviews. The
endeavor often required getting up early and staying up late. Often the work itself was tedious and
Virtue in action
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boring, but motivated by the desire to give thanks
Shauna persevered.
A real test of the million thanks team commitment
came in May 2004 when the team missed the goal of
having one million letters completed for that years
National Military Appreciation Month’s commemorations. At that time they could have given up, and no
one would have faulted them for not achieving such
a high goal. Shauna and her school team were still
convinced they could hit the 1 million letter goal and
decided to push ahead.
Finally, seven months after starting, Shauna received the
millionth letter and handed it personally to President
Bush. Her greatest reward was knowing how much it
meant to the troops, through the emails and letters they
wrote back to her. “I get them a few times a week,” she says.
“They’ll say, ‘You really have no idea what you’re doing for
us--it makes such a difference. There’s so many times that
if we lose a lot of men from our unit, it’s so hard to keep
going, but if we read these letters, it boosts our morale.’
They feel that they’re fighting for the people writing these
letters.” These notes from the servicemen and women
show us the incredible value of simply giving thanks.
of patriotism, and “reconnects the family of America.” It
reminds us that it is up to all of us to do our part to make
our country thrive.
Shauna is not stopping with 1 million thanks; her new
goal is to get 1.4 million letters, to equal the number of
men and women in the armed forces. Shauna’s story
shows us that no matter how old we are, we can all achieve
high and worthy goals through hard work, perseverance
and by demonstrating leadership in asking and motivating others to help. Maybe all of us aren’t called to begin
projects as large as Shauna’s but we can all do something
to show our thanks for those who serve us. n
Notes
Honoring Those Who Serve
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how much the families of
military men and women sacrifice. By imagining ourselves in their situations we practice the virtue of empathy, which can help us better understand their sacrifice.
Today tens of thousands of children have been without
their father or mother for many months, as most military
personal have been deployed for extended periods. Over
a thousand servicemen and women have lost their lives
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families suffer from
the loss of a loved one. Often, reserve and guard families
accept significantly reduced pay as the deployed father or
mother is activated for duty and they have to leave their
regular jobs. We can help in simple yet powerful ways by
saying thank you to any military families we may know, by
making donations to groups that help military families in
financial distress, and simply by being a good friend to the
children of military families.
May has just begun, and in our own communities we have
opportunities to show our gratitude. The entire month
includes Military Spouses Appreciation Day, Loyalty Day,
National Day of Prayer, Armed Forces Day/Week, and
Memorial Day. Taking the time to know the history of the
military and its accomplishments helps to build a sense
Vocabulary
Empathy – Entering into the feelings or spirit of others, and
imagining yourself in another person’s situation.
Compassion – Feeling of sympathy for the distress of others,
with the desire to help them.
Generosity – Freely giving of our time, talent and resources.
Gratitude – A feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.
Leadership – To inspire and motivate others in their conduct;
to play a guiding role.
Perseverance – Trying hard and continously, despite obstacles
and difficulties.
www.virtueinaction.org
Copyright May, 2005
Current Links in Education
1126 Dartmouth Rd. Flossmoor, Il 60422
Phone: 708.922.1075 • Email: [email protected]
Teacher’s Guide
Virtue in action
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High School Student Organizes One Million Letters of Thanks
V i rt u e i n ac t i o n
f o s t e r i n g c i t i z e n s h i p t h r o u g h c h a r ac t e r e d u c at i o n
Lesson Goals
EDevelop understanding of the virtues of
gratitude, perseverance, generosity, hard
work and leadership, and to see how
these virtues enable us to achieve our
goals
EMotivate students to demonstrate
initiative in establishing high goals for
themselves, and to understand that age
doesn’t have to limit our ability to set
and to accomplish aggressive goals
EBuild awareness for the National
Military Appreciation Month (NMAM),
and to encourage students and schools
to consider ways they can commemorate
NMAM within their communities
EUnderstand the nature of leadership in
communicating a vision and motivating
others to work in realizing the vision
ERealize the value of teamwork in
accomplishing goals
EHelp students to see how one person’s
life can have a positive effect on many
others
Discussion
Question Options
A.What do you think was the greatest
motivation for Shauna to begin this
project? What kept her going, even
when it was tough? Why didn’t she just
stop at 500,000 letters, and say that it
was good enough?
B.2. Do you think it was important for
Shauna to have help from others? What
are the elements of leadership Shauna
displayed in motivating others to help?
Discussion points to consider: creating
a worthy vision, communicating the
vision effectively to others, leading by
example in working hard to achieve
the vision, asking for help, giving
others meaningful responsibilities to
accomplish the goal
C.How do you think the one million
thanks project affected those
working on the project, from
the people who organized the
project to those who wrote letters?
(opportunities for empathy,
compassion, generosity, sense of
accomplishment in helping others,
more fully realizing the sacrifice of
others)
D.Do you think we should be grateful
to the military, even if we do not
agree with the war? Is it important to
show appreciation, no matter what
the politics of the situation are?
Journal
Writing Options
1. Shauna’s project was simple, but
powerful in making a positive
difference in the lives of millions of
people. Let’s write about some of our
goals that have the ability to make a
real difference for others. Write out
a vision statement for one of your
ideas, and then a plan on how to
accomplish the goal.
2. Write an essay on the statement
“Freedom is not free”. In your essay,
discuss why this statement is true
from multiple perspectives such as
national defense, our responsibilities
as a citizen of the United States and
of the larger global community.
3. Who are some of the people in our
lives who serve us, and yet we may
not have shown our appreciation.
Let’s write about these people, how
they serve us, and some of the ways
that we can say thanks?
Extended Learning
Activities
A.Send a letter of thanks to our service
men and woman and mail them
to Shauna. Contact information
can be found through the website
www.amillionthanks.org . Consider
organizing a school wide letter drive.
B.As a class, there consider how you can
participate in the “dozen ways to support
our military” and other ideas. The
NMAM website is www.nmam.org :
• Raise funds for military charities.
One charity that focuses on helping
military families in need is:
http://usacares.us/
• Ask class teams to research specific
wars and humanitarian missions
(tsunami relief, Somalia) and to give
class presentations on the role of the
U.S. military in each war or relief
mission.
• Fly the flag on your house, car, or
business during May
• Send a care package to a soldier
through www.usocares.org
• Organize an event in your own
community, and at your school
• Ask your elected officials at all levels to
recognize our military
• Wear a “support our troops” wristband
or shirt
• Register your support at www.
americasupportsyou.mil/
• Ask libraries, schools, organizations to
participate in recognizing our armed
forces
• Ask local media (TV, radio, newspaper)
to feature the NMAM
• When you see a person in a military
uniform, shake their hand and say,
“Thank you for serving our country”
www.virtueinaction.org
Copyright April, 2005 Current Links in Education
1126 Dartmouth Rd. Flossmoor, Il 60422
Phone: 708.922.1075 • Email: [email protected]