Trisha’s Mission

Posted by admin

November 29, 2008

From time to time, instead of an actual angel intervention, I like to spotlight someone who is acting as an “earth angel” for the rest of us. Sometimes it’s a cause, such as our friend in Arkansas, JoAnn Cayce, who collects clothes for the poor (and don’t forget her as you shop garage sales this summer!) And sometimes it’s a person with a great idea who somehow (perhaps with the hidden help of angels?) makes it work.

Such a person is Trish Gallagher, a single mother of four teenagers. One night in 1999, 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.

At that time, our troops were in Kosovo, so Trisha contacted some chaplains and sent 5000 of the pins overseas to be distributed. She donated 2500 more to hospitals and women’s groups in her Norristown, 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 never 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.

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:

“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 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. Which brought her to her next project, personally distributing 50,000 yellow laminated bookmarks offering a new poem, “A Team of Angels for Peace in Our World.” “A world rattled by terrorists needs to see the light of angels,” Trish says. She traveled to various cities throughout the summer, along with some of her kids, and was able to touch many people. “My own perspective has changed since I began sharing the angel pins and reading all those letters,” she says. “I’ve accepted the things I cannot change, and I count my blessings each day.”

C 2005 Joan Wester Anderson www.joanwanderson.com