Cape Brownie troop creates ribbons of patriotism

Armed with crayons, Lucy Gage carefully drew an airplane crashing into a skyscraper on construction paper as she and others in her third-grade Brownie troop made sympathy cards Thursday afternoon for President Bush and the people of New York and Washington.

"We are writing to him so he will feel better," Gage said of the card she was making for President Bush in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

"It will make the people feel better," said Bethany Mirly, one of about a dozen members of Brownie Troop 277 at Trinity Lutheran School. "It will make them feel good we are praying for them."

After making cards at the school, the girls assisted troop leaders in creating 300 red, white and blue lapel ribbons. The ribbons will be distributed today to students and staff at Trinity Lutheran School in recognition of President Bush's decree of a national day of prayer and remembrance.

"We all need to show our patriotism right now," said Tonia Mirly, leader of the Brownie troop. Mirly came up with the idea of making the ribbons after she and her friends tied patriotic bows to their car antennas.

Mirly said she and the other troop leaders originally thought of making the ribbons just for their troop but quickly decided to expand the project to provide ribbons for everyone at the school.

Troop leaders are including a typed statement with each ribbon that makes mention of Tuesday's tragic terrorist attacks and contains a verse from the Bible: "God is our refuge in strength, an ever present help in trouble."

Mirly said the ribbons are a quick and easy way for Americans to display their patriotism.

She and three other leaders of the Brownie troop spent part of their afternoon working on the ribbons.

The girls in the troop helped too. But their first priority was to make cards full of drawings of American flags, hearts and crosses. Their cards offered simple words of sympathy and prayer.

"We're sorry you got hurt," Destiny Kelley wrote on her red construction-paper card for those injured in the terrorist attack that demolished the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Mirly hopes to get the Red Cross to deliver Kelley's card and those of the other third graders in her troop.