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Georgia,
was trying to raise
her two sons when the Gulf War broke out. She heard about soldiers in the
service who had no family and needed pen pals.
Letters addressed to
"Any Soldier"
Were distributed by commanding officers who noticed any soldiers getting
little or no mail. Georgia wrote to 25 such soldiers almost daily, most of
them men. Keeping up with 25 pen pals on a daily basis almost consumed
Georgia's time and talents. She sent poems, little stories, and words of
hope and encouragement. When there were time constraints, she would write
one letter and copy it for everyone. Greetings were sent whenever she knew
about a special event, like a birthday.
One day, Georgia received a letter from a soldier that was depressed and
discouraged. She pondered as to how she could help lift his spirits. It
was then that she noticed that at work there were paper clips of various
colors. Georgia took one of the yellow paper clips and photo copied it in the palm of her
hand. She sent this picture with the paper clip with the following
message:
"This yellow paper clip that you see in my hand represents a hug that
I am sending to you. You can carry this paper clip in a pocket or
anywhere, and whenever you feel down, you can just touch and hold it and
know that somebody cares about you, and would give you a hug if she were
there."
Georgia sent a copy of this picture along with a paper clip and the message to
each of her other correspondents. After the war ended, Georgia received
one of the pictures of her hand holding the yellow paper clip, and on the
back were over 150 signatures of people that had been given her
"hug". During the years, Georgia named other paper clips. Pink came to mean a kiss,
green was for good luck, and so on.
Years
later, Georgia was giving a class
as part of a seminar for positive thinking. She shared with the members of
the class her paper clip symbolism, and made a bracelet of multicolored
paper clips for each of them. One of the women exclaimed "So you're
the one!" The class member told Georgia that she was visiting her
brother and needed something to hold papers together. She had noticed a yellow paper clip on the refrigerator held there with a
magnet. She borrowed the paper clip for her papers. When the brother saw
it, he grabbed it and scolded her, and told her never to touch the yellow
paper clip again. Now she knew why. No one will ever know how far her
message has spread, nor how many lives have been touched by a simple
yellow paper clip.
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