darn good news

mlincoln

Seems like many of the articles posted on this board are about how America is so screwed up, how people won't ride fire trucks with the American flag on them, etc. Well, this is some damn good news. I actually taught one of these children for two years. She and the rest of her sisters are great kids. Read on for something to perk you right up.____________________________________________Washing Cars And Cleansing A Nation of Pain Annandale Sisters' Charity Catches On By David ChoWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, September 27, 2001; Page B03 The Welch sisters' little-car-wash-that-could began as a way for Annandale youths to raise a few dollars for charityafter the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Today, Ashley, Aubrey, Alana and Alyssa will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" -- proof positive that the foursisters' simple idea has bubbled into a national phenomenon, one that has caught the fancy of the media and, moreimportantly, raised tens of thousands of dollars for the American Red Cross.Children in a dozen states have signed up on a Web site for what the Welches have named "Wash America." AndCongress jumped aboard, designating last weekend and the next two as National Wash America Weekends. The effort's motto -- "Help Wash the Hurt Away" -- seemed right to the Welch sisters, who found themselves wrestlingwith difficult emotions after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. On the morning of Sept. 11, theirfather, Tracy, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, had a meeting scheduled at the Pentagon, in an office nearwhere American Airlines Flight 77 smashed into the building."If it had hit 45 minutes or an hour later, I would have been in there," he said.The four sisters -- Ashley, 16, Aubrey, 15, Alana, 14, and Alyssa, 10 -- spent the morning at school worried about theirfather. They didn't know his fate until later that day. When he finally got home that evening, Alana ran to him in tears,hugging him and refusing to let go."You always hear on TV about close calls, but I never imagined I would feel like I did," said Aubrey, a junior atAnnandale High School. "I can't imagine what it was like for kids who lost their parents."The girls wanted to do something for families who did lose a loved one. They are too young to give blood, so a friendsuggested a carwash to raise money. Their mother, Cherrie, called WTOP radio and asked the station to put out theword. The sisters enlisted their friends and school clubs to help.The Welches set up four washes around Annandale, with a sister in charge of each. No price was set, just whateverpeople felt like donating. That first Saturday, one customer handed them a check for $1,000 -- arguably the mostexpensive carwash in history.At the Pinecrest Exxon, one of the four sites, owner Raman Sethi lowered his gas prices below cost and gavediscounts on oil changes to attract customers to the carwash. At the other locations, lemonade and snack standswere set up. Parents brought their young children, who held up signs as large as themselves and called out to passingcars, "Carwash! Get your car washed!"The take after five hours: $10,000.The total became a selling point for the story. WTOP did an update the next day, which was heard by Peter Segall,general manager of the Washington office of Edelman Public Relations Inc. At a meeting on Monday, he told his staffthat publicizing the efforts of the Welch sisters at no cost would be the firm's contribution to the coast-to-coast reliefeffort.The firm designed a logo and set up a Web site -- www.washamerica.org -- so that youngsters across the countrycould sign up to help. The firm also contacted the American Red Cross, which set up a Wash America fund, and sentout a barrage of news releases. Last Thursday, Congress passed its Wash America resolution, introduced by VirginiaRepublicans John W. Warner in the Senate and Thomas M. Davis III in the House. Last Saturday, CNN and MSNBChad their cameras rolling as the sisters washed more cars at the Pinecrest Exxon on Little River Turnpike. EvenDavis, who lives nearby, rolled up his sleeves and picked up a sponge.In its second weekend, Wash America raised $10,700 nationwide.Cherrie Welch said she received an e-mail from an 8-year-old and his brother in South Carolina who held a WashAmerica event in their driveway and raised $70. "It was the most money they had ever earned, and they were soproud," she said.On Tuesday, Edelman had the sisters do satellite feeds to more than two dozen news programs across the country.After Oprah, Maury Povich is waiting in the wings, and the girls hope to appear on "Good Morning America" and"Today."Compaq Computers has announced it will give 25 computers to the school that raises the most money."In some ways, I'm totally astonished by the way this spread; in other ways, I'm not surprised at all," Cherrie Welchsaid, adding that the family hopes for a Wash America effort in every state. "Youth of today have had so much badpublicity -- school shootings, Columbine and so on -- and I think that they were frightened for our future and hungry tocontribute something." c 2001 The Washington Post Company

.250Savage

Good post, Mlincoln. Good to see some good news.

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I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.--Voltare