BATON ROUGE, LA—As we try to heal as a community after tragically losing three of our law enforcement officers, what would you want to see on a star that would give you hope?
That’s what children in New York City created for our community this week—HOPE on a star.
Suzanne Bernier, Stars of HOPE Global Ambassador, “It’s a project started in the New York Says Thank You Foundation and it’s to help spread love and hope and healing to communities after disasters by getting children involved to paint brightly colored stars, whatever they think would give them hope if they would feeling bad and if something bad happened to them.”
Global Ambassador for the organization Stars of HOPE, Suzanne Bernier, traveled from Toronto, Canada to help distribute 70 stars.
Suzanne Bernier, Stars of Hope global ambassador, “To show them, people do care across America and are thinking about them. You’ll notice all the stars that you’ll see around the community have all been painted by people who also come from tragedy. This particular one was painted by a child who was a survivor of Hurricane Sandy.”
She has traveled all over the country and world during times of tragedy and disaster to hand out these stars and to her Baton Rouge stands out by its unity.
Suzanne Bernier, Stars of Hope global ambassador, “What I got the feeling of being on the ground is very different where I really see a sense of community and people supporting each other. If one person can get a smile out of seeing a star in front of them, then we’ve done our job.”
Which is what Brad Garafola’s neighbor and friend Monica Girlinghouse did when she received a Star of HOPE.
Monica Girlinghouse, Brad Garafola Friend, “It made me feel so good when they came in. Just big hugs. I’m gonna take my star and take it to Brad’s kids and they can hang this in their home so they can see that other people cared about their daddy too and he was so special. That we all loved him and this will help them in their healing and that everything gonna be okay. It might now seem like it right now but it’s going to be okay. daddy’s in heaven and this is can be your star to remember your daddy.”
