Team of Angels Foundation, Inc.
Box 561, Worcester, Pa 19490
215-272-1933
www.teamofangels.com
Thousands of Pins and Poems Given to the Troops
Patricia Gallagher, creator of the "Team of Angels" lapel pin wants to distribute as many angel pins as she can to our troops. Gallagher’s Team of Angels project began in 1999 out of her Pennsylvania home. She began writing poems to support our military when a friend’s son was being deployed to the Balkans. When our troops went to Kosovo, she created a poem to cheer them up and offer support. The Team of Angels pin is mounted to a patriotic bookmark with her poem that says:
A Team of Angels to Thank Our United States Armed Forces
You’re positive, uplifting
Brave, courageous, fun
The angels bring with grateful joy
Our thanks for all you’ve done.
They bring strength from heaven’s garden
In bouquets of love and cheer
And prayers full of blessings
To protect our forces, far and near!
With the help of chaplains in the U.S. Armed Forces overseas and an article written in the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, Patricia donated thousands of her team of angels bookmarks and pins to Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen. She received a letter from a young soldier’s wife, "It was so nice to read that someone is thinking of our soldiers. They go through so much more than you can imagine on a daily basis. They are very brave and I respect them so much." Patricia never anticipated the response when she first began making her gold-plated creation. She has received letters of support from the Secretary of the Navy, the Department of Defense and the Veterans of Foreign War.
If you would like to order a pin for a loved one or request that a pin be sent to ANY SOLDIER, please send $5 to: Team of Angels Foundation, Inc., Box 561, Worcester, PA 19490, 215-272-1933, or visit www.teamofangels.com.
And sometimes it's a person with a great idea who somehow (perhaps with the hidden help of angels and the help of strangers)? makes it work.
Such a person is Trish Gallagher, a mother of four children, ages 23, 21,18 and 16. One night when she was going through an especially tough time, Trish spoke to God in her usual familiar way, asking Him to send an angel to help her. “No…” she amended her request, “better send a team of angels, Lord; I don’t think one will do….” The words started her thinking. How many people were overwhelmed like her, and might welcome an actual, tangible sign of support? Trish, a former businesswoman, began to research her idea, and soon created a gold lapel angel pin featuring three angels holding hands. She mounted the pin on a card which bore a “Team of Angels” poem (which she wrote), and began to spread the word.
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SUBMIT ANGEL PIN STORYI am writing a book about the people who have received my team of angel pins. If you would like to submit a story or experience for consideration, please contact me.
Trisha contacted some chaplains and sent 5000 of the pins overseas to be distributed to our U.S. troops in the Middle East. She donated 2500 more to hospitals and women’s groups in her Pennsylvania community. “I dropped them off at toll booths, mailboxes, waiting rooms and phone booths,” Trisha says. “I even put a basket of them on my front porch, and encouraged neighbors to take what they needed.” Her instructions to every recipient were the same: “Keep this pin until you meet someone who needs it more than you do, and then pass it along.” Trish rarely sold the pins, asking only for postage on occasion (and if a recipient couldn’t afford postage, she got her pins anyway). “How I managed to finance this is a story only providence and the angels could explain,” she says. But unexpected donations and support always arrived just as she needed to produce more angels.
Gradually the movement grew, and soon Trish was receiving letters from strangers, most telling of how they had received one of her pins at a time of great need: “My neighbors lost their child in a fire. Someone gave them your pin….”“I am a prisoner on death row. Please send a pin to my wife. I want her to know that whatever I did, I love her…”"My friend is the victim of domestic abuse. I gave her the pin and it has helped her endure as she plans to leave…”“I am a Colonel in the US military. When your pins arrived at our barracks in the desert, it brought me to tears. If you can make an old man like me cry about something so touching, I know your pins mean a thousand times more to the brave young soldiers serving here in Iraq.”- As each letter came (and they now number about 30,000), Trish prayed for the person involved.- “I found it amazing that a little unexpected angel pin could generate such a response, especially from people who are in pain,” she says.
Which has brought her to her next project, one that maybe you can help her accomplish.
Trish is planning to personally distribute 50,000 yellow team of angels pins attached to a laminated bookmark, offering a new poem, “A Team of Angels for Peace in Our World.” “A world rattled by terrorists needs to see the light of angels,” Trish says. Patricia also offers a bookmark for families touched by illness, pain, grief, and in need of hope. She hopes her poems will comfort, inspire, uplift and console.“My hope is that there are churches, 12 Step Recovery Groups, grief support organizations, and social groups that will want these angel pins, and may be looking for an inspirational speaker for a special event or church gathering." (Please call to schedule a speaking engagement.) “My own perspective has changed since I began sharing the angel pins and reading all those letters,” she says. “I’ve accepted the things I cannot change, and I count my blessings each day.” For more information, contact Patricia Gallagher 484-932-8311 and 215-272-1933 -- P.O. Box 561,Worcester, PA 19490. Or email Trish at yngsparro@aol.com.For more stories of God's love, visit the website at: http://joanwanderson.com/
Searching for Donna’s Mother to Thank Her
I had always heard it is better to give than to receive. Maybe that is what I had in mind as I traveled down Interstate 95 from my suburban Philadelphia home to Florida. My van was loaded with thousands of angel pins attached to a bookmark with a poem I had written. I wanted to reach out to others who were healing from hurts and disappointments and give them a little token of encouragement: my little gold team of angels pin and bookmark. I had the pins packed in hundreds of plastic bags, each containing a dozen or more pins. I planned to leave them in churches, hospitals, drug rehab clinics and shelters. As I stopped at Holiday Inns, Pizza Huts and Cracker Barrel restaurants, I left a bag in the ladies restrooms. I hoped that traveling people would find them and be encouraged. The words of the poems were penned by me during a dark time in my life…. when I was placing all of my hope on the Good Shepherd. Before I placed a bag in a restroom, I prayed God, “please bless the person who finds this pin.”
I saw a black vehicle -- I think it was a jeep or SUV -- driving in front of me on Sunday, July 23. At a speed of 65 mph, it was impossible to connect and give the lady driving the car an angel pin but I felt she needed hope. The words on the back of her vehicle said I MISS YOU. DONNA TRAVELEAR-WELLS 1978-2005. I thought that the person named must be her daughter who was no longer here on earth – her angel in heaven. I jotted down the name on a piece of paper because I wanted to do a computer search and know more about the daughter whom she never wanted the world to forget. I tried to catch up with her for miles and miles…hoping to see her at the Chesapeake House rest stop or one of the many toll booths along I-95. I pondered her loss and made a mental promise to to call each of my three daughters to tell them You are wonderful. I love you. Her message to her deceased daughter expressed life’s true fragility.
When I got to the Baltimore area toll booth, I prepared to pay my toll. I don’t remember how much it was but I know it wasn’t one of the little tolls like thirty-five cents or a dollar. I think it was about four or five dollars. As I extended my five-dollar bill to the toll-attendant, she said NO TOLL DUE. THE LADY IN THE BLACK CAR IN FRONT OF YOU PAID FOR YOU. I looked ahead – it was the black jeep with the message to Donna. I started to cry and got goose bumps. Was it just a random act of kindness or was she connecting to me as we passed each other on the expressway? Did Donna’s mother see the angels and stars on my gold van and the words NEED HOPE? OVERWHELMED? Did they make her think of her angel in heaven?
If you know her, please tell her I was trying to connect with her. I want to know more about her beautiful daughter. Was it a tragic accident that shattered this mom’s life; was it a daughter clinging to life after a long illness that took her away too soon? I want her to be able to tell the world how sad it is that Donna is no longer here to shine her light. The message on the black jeep showed me the power of a mother’s love. As the lump formed in my throat, I thought just like the words of my poems that were put in my mind to give away, Donna’s mom’s message of love for her daughter is meant to change lives, one speeding car at a time.
PEOPLE IN 12 STEP RECOVERY GROUPS GET THE PINS!
“Hello, Mrs. Gallagher, my name is Mike and I received one of your Team of Angels pins when I came out of prison. I felt like it was a sign from my Higher Power. I am just calling to let you know what I did with the angel pin, because I know the message says to pass it along.”
Throughout life, he had been caught up in a lot of family problems and alcohol had been his means of coping. He had an impressive six years sober but the demands of taking care of a mother with dementia had drawn him back to his unhealthy old habits.
“After mom’s passing, I was devastated. I lost my sobriety and was arrested for a DUI. It wasn’t the first, I am ashamed to say, and my lawyer and family couldn’t cover for any more of my bad decisions. I had to go to jail.”
The message was on my answering machine. I wondered what the conversation would be about. Mike was in a Twelve Step recovery group and attended daily Alcoholic Anonymous meetings. He had seen a young woman, very distraught, walking to her car after the meeting. He went up to see if he could help. As she choked through her words, she explained she had terror-filled nights and painful bouts of depression, no medical insurance and couldn’t afford the right medicine – she had to depend on doctor’s samples, which were not dependable. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she couldn’t sleep because of her anxiety over the misery of a failed marriage. He gave her the Team of Angels pin for taking One Day at a Time. The following morning, she walked into the AA meeting room looking as proud as a peacock. She gave him a big smile and hug.
“Guess what, Mike”, she said happily, “I slept twelve hours last night after getting the pin.”
She was wearing the pin on a flamboyant green blouse with pink petunias.
“Joe, please don’t tell anyone but I am not going to pass this pin along…not until I am on the other side of this horrible disease.”
“Don’t worry, “ Joe told her, “ with that team of angels, you are well on your way to recovery. They worked for me and I know they will work for you too.”
Tears came to my eyes. What a blessing this little pin was for a struggling young woman! Thank you, God for giving this woman the gift of sleep, and for Mike passing along the Team of Angels!
Visiting the emergency rooms close to midnight!
Some moms just go to work, get a paycheck, and live a 9 to 5 “normal” life … and my kids were stuck with one who interpreted motherhood through a nomad’s lens, traveling from place to place, trying to connect to people with an angel pin … that’s right three little angels holding hands, a simple gold lapel pin.. A mom handing out bags of angel pins up and down the East Coast of America. Now is that something you want to tell your friends about?
”No, my mom doesn’t work. She travels around and gives out angel pins.” I could just picture my older children trying to explain my concept of balancing work and motherhood. while at the same time desperately trying to get back on her feet financially.
That’s what I was thinking when I walked into the emergency room of a city hospital, late at night. My plan was to just hop out of my van, grab a bag of angel pins from the trunk, and give them to the triage nurse in charge.
With four kids of my own, I had been in plenty of ERs and I knew it was stress you could live without. I recalled the frantic prayers and bargains I often made with God, while racing to the hospital after a call from a policeman that my child was en route to the emergency room. The one accident, when 21 people were taken to the hospital, was a nightmare.and the accident was pinned on my daughter. Lawsuits threatened my serenity for months. I repeated and even sang the words of the Serenity Prayer (to my own made-up tune) until my mouth was numb. I looked up to the blue sky that fall day and thought I actually saw her in the clouds. I sure needed to be prepared to accept the things I could not change .I remember the fear and panic while seated on the orange vinyl chairs, waiting for the news.
I saw a Down Syndrome little boy waiting outside the hospital and then a lady holding her bandaged head, a mom and dad hugging, not in a romantic way, it was more like a “this is the end of our world hug.”
I remembered the anguish in my heart when my then 18-year-old daughter, Katelyn, was airlifted to a trauma center and another time when my husband was near death at another hospital. I paced outside the van, with my emergency flashers blinking, wondering if I should even go in to this medical center. After all, going in to say I am here because I want to give out a little token of encouragement, sounds a little weird..
It was close to midnight and the lobby of a hotel was really the place to be – not the lobby of an emergency room – especially if you didn’t even have a medical reason to be there.
I said a half-hearted prayer and asked God to bless what I was doing -
because at this point I began to wonder if this was anybody’s will but my own. What was preying on my mind was a comment that one of my children said to me at an angry moment, just a few hours earlier.
“Nobody supports you on this angel pin thing – not Dad, not Grandma, not anybody. Everybody is talking behind your back.” I felt so bad that I almost made a tearful admission that maybe I am a nut … and this was all a waste of time and money.
I put that thought behind me and hung on to my friend’s parting words before I left for my 7000 mile trip. Frances had answered my query “What am I really going to do with all of these angel pins?” Who am I going to give them to?”“They are preanointed. God will guide you. He knows where they are supposed to go. God gave you this gift, now go share it.”
