BARRY, ILL. -- We when talk about those rubber bracelets, we think of the yellow ones that Lance Armstrong endorsed or maybe the pink ones that are sold for breast cancer awareness.
But there's a young woman from Barry, Illinois that has taken that bracelet idea a step further and now she is going to be honored by the American Legion Convention of Illinois.
16-year-old Cailtin Lee said she's always liked the idea of helping her community and so when she and her friends got together for her 16th birthday and they all had those rubber bracelets on, a new idea dawned on her on how to give a little more back to the Barry community.
"Uh no, I didn't expect it to take off this big. People have been really, really generous and have made great donations and it's turned out really well," Lee said.
What's she's taking about turning out really well are those bracelets. Lee ordered several hundred of the bracelets and has been going door to door asking for donations. The donations she has gotten so far has been given to the the local American Legion and from there the legion members take the money and put it in their flag fund. From there, American flags are purchased and displayed throughout the community on Memorial Day weekend.
"We've got a very generous community and we've got several donations over the years. But we started off with nothing in 2007 and we just then started an account and she just doubled it," Rick Griffith, commander of American Legion Post 222 in Barry said.
And her effort to raise donations goes towards buying flags. And each flag has the name of a veteran from the area who served. And for the members of Post 222, they couldn't be happier with the idea that Caitlin came up to help remember the veterans who served.
Because of Caitlin's efforts, she is going to be honored Friday afternoon in Springfield by the American Legion State Convention.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKHQA