ST. LOUIS — Total strangers are trying to help heal the wounds of kids affected by gun violence.
Neighbors met at the Dunn-Marquette Recreation Center in South St. Louis to make greeting cards with powerful messages of hope.
"There was a little boy, four or five, shot in his bottom, and a little girl shot in the leg," organizer Julie Frampton said. "There are kids whose parents have been killed."
The cards are for them.
"We care," Frampton said. "It might sound a little silly at first, 'Why are you just sending greeting cards to these kids?' But the whole thing is, it's teaching them that they don't need to follow in that path."
Saturday's meeting was their first meeting and, at first, they expected a few adults to come. However, young children and teenagers were also there to help.
One card read, "It's okay to be mad." Another read, "God gave you a second chance." And, on fourth grader Damien Brown’s card, which he folded into a paper airplane, he wrote, "I hope you feel better. I care about what happened to your sister."
"When I was writing the cards, I thought about what they felt and what words would make them feel better," Brown said.
The project has special meaning for Frampton.
"I thought of this because of an experience that happened to me," she said. "I'm a Gold Star wife. My husband was killed in Afghanistan back in 2003."
One day, her 14-year-old her daughter got a surprise in the mail.
"It was a card from another 14-year-old girl and inside the card, she wrote, 'I cried the day I heard your daddy died,'" Frampton said. "It meant so much to her. It still does."
They hope Saturday's bundle of cards will mean as much to this generation of kids.
If you would like to send cards, or if you know of a child who would benefit from receiving a card, contact Julie Frampton at framptonjulia@yahoo.com.
