Hero Hugs Founders Asking for Birthday Donations

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Mar 11, 2010, 04:33 ET

NICEVILLE, Fla., March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bailey Reese appears to be an ordinary teenager - she loves the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber, hanging out with friends and spending time on Facebook. If you ask the troops proudly serving in the US military, they would say this young lady is anything but ordinary!

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Bailey was 7 when Hurricane Ivan left her community without power. At a checkpoint where soldiers were passing out supplies she was disappointed to see people complaining about the lines and how much was being given out instead of thanking the troops who had come to help. Bailey gathered friends to made thank you cards for the troops. It became her passion to thank the men and women proudly serving our country. This started Hero Hugs.

Bailey turns 14 on April 3, 2010. The organization she founded and now runs has sent over 48,000 packages to deployed troops. Bailey has contributed over 5,300 hours to be sure our troops know they are appreciated for their service and sacrifice. Hero Hugs is unique in that everything is done by kids. Adults work with the kids and serve as mentors, but the kids raise the money and handcraft the packages. Kids nationwide have sent cards and donations to support Hero Hugs.

Bailey's friend, Angela Riseden joined the organization four years ago when her mom was deployed to Iraq. Angela is the "honorary" Vice-President and will turn 14 shortly after Bailey on April 21st.

These two amazing girls have a special birthday wish. That wish is to receive 500,000 cards for their birthdays which include a $1 donation for Hero Hugs from all over the country. Bailey explained, "We get emails all the time, but people just do not send stamped mail anymore. Kids love getting mail so I think the best birthday present ever would be getting buried in cards. We'd have an awesome birthday, be able to send more thanks to our troops and it would help us reach our goal of 100,000 packages mailed!"

Birthday cards for Bailey and Angela along with your donation to send appreciation packages to the troops can be sent to: