Today is Thursday, September 20th, 2007; Karen's Korner #1154

Last week a Karen's Korner told about Clarion's What's for Supper? and some small proceeds impacting a family, nearly on the other side of the world in Poland.
 
Here is another story of impacting lives from Clarion, a community which is the size of a pin point or a fleck on a map.
 
 
Amy Barron Smolinski, a 1997 Clarion-Goldfield High School graduate, has written a letter to the editor which appears in our local paper today. She is married to a rehabilitation physician. The couple have one-year-old twins and are living near Washington D.C. Her husband works at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, treating soldiers who have been wounded in the war.
 
It was a week ago Monday when Amy happened to be in the rehab clinic with their sons following a meeting of the hospital auxiliary's volunteers. She happened to walk by a wounded patient coming out of the clinic. This is such a common sight that she hardly even noticed, but "What did stop me dead in my tracks was the t-shirt one man was wearing," Amy penned. It was bright white, obviously brand new, and emblazoned across the front was CGHS and on the back of the shirt was printed 'Clarion-Goldfield High School Cowboys', complete with a game schedule.
 
That was enough to have Amy turn around and ask the wounded man about the shirt and how he happened to be wearing it! "He lifted his good arm to show me that the shirt had been modified with velcro to make it easier to take on and off with one hand," Amy said. The young man had no connections with Clarion, but it was immediately apparent to Amy that the shirt had been donated by someone or some group from Clarion.
 
Amy finished her letter by writing, "I can't tell you how it warmed my heart to see, from hundreds of miles away, a little piece of the generosity and goodwill of my hometown. To whomever donated that shirt, and to everyone who's done anything to help the wounded soldiers, I say to you, as a former Clarionite and a soldier's wife, thank you and God bless."
 
What I do, what you do, and what we do impacts people's lives in ways that we can only imagine. In our hands and from our eyes, it sometimes doesn't appear to be too much. But in God's hands, it can change the world!

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