How
did Patricia Gallagher, a suburban mom from Pennsylvania,
try to PIN THE WORLD TOGETHER with angel pins?
Yep!
Angel pins, close to 100,000 of them.
How
did she take a great idea and somehow make it work (perhaps
with the hidden help of angels and the help of strangers?).
Trish Gallagher
is the mother of four children, ages 25, 24, 21 and 18. One
night, in 1998, 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.
| 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
worldwide as well as 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. |
Click to enlarge |
| 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. After distributing
close to 100,000 pins to people in need, the Gallagher
family was encouraged to form a 501 C 3 non - profit organization.
The team of angel pins are now available for purchase
on the ONLINE CATALOG ,The proceeds from the sale of the
pins fund the distribution of pins to people in need,
including our wounded soldiers and their families, support
groups for those affected by depression, cancer, addictions,
bereavement, and other worthy causes such as Parents of
Murdered Children. .Patricia and John Gallagher and their
family welcome interviews and speaking engagements. (yngsparro@aol.com)
Cell # 267-939-0365 Box 561, Worcester, PA 19490. |
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
and her family 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. |
OVERWHELMED
BY LIFE?
I
felt like I was at the end of my rope!.
- My
husband was being downsized from his job and in the midst
of a clinical depression which led to a violent suicide
attempt.
- Our
family was in financial and emotional distress.
-
My father was dying of throat cancer.
- We had
four children to raise, ages 8, 11, 14, and 15. .
- I
had not worked outside the home in 23 years.
-
In desperation, I asked God to help me. Words poured from
my troubled soul, as I scribbled on a scrap of paper, while
crying tears of sadness. This is what I wrote, although
I had never written a poem before this time of despair:
A
TEAM OF ANGELS FOR THE OVERWHELMED
I need a team of angels, Lord
-
I don't think one will do
Please send me all the help from high
For what I am going through.
Guardians to watch over me
And help my soul to cope
I'll do the best I can to pray
And cherish gifts of faith and hope
I
then fashioned a little angel pin from craft supplies for
myself, bearing three gold angels, wings intertwined...I called
it my "team of angels"
I would like to help others who are overwhelmed as I once
was. Out of my broken heart, I found hope and healing by giving.
I would like to share my story and encourage others to pass
on hope and comfort, with my team of angel pins and inspirational
poem bookmarks!
What has come out of this
hurt and turmoil? How did I find hope and healing?
-
Close to 100,000 people are now wearing my team of angels
pin and have the above poem, printed on a small card
-
I have received 30,000 letters from people hurting more
than myself, who wanted my pin and poem for the overwhelmed
-
The Team of Angels is a pending 501 C 3 non-profit corporation.
The
letters that have impacted me the most are from:
-
A high -ranking military officer that said how much the
pins meant to them serving in the desert
-
The mother of two children killed by a drunk driver
-
A mother from Florida whose daughter was killed by the same
serial killer that killed little Adam Walsh in Florida
-
The spectators at a trial in Pottsville, PA who wore my
pin during the court case (coverage in the Pottsville Gazette
newspaper)
-
The mother of a young woman waiting for a kidney donor credits
the pin (and the surgeon) for a successful operation
|