Chelsy's Heroes was started in June of 2006.   There is a story how Chelsy's got it's start.

I ( meaning Chelsy's mom) Was in the St Cloud hospital recovering from lung surgery. When Chelsy would visit she would hang yellow post it notes throughout the room. They would say,
“I love you mom” and “Get well soon.”  I appreciated the though fullness and her kindness.  Each visit she wrote more notes and hung them.  When I returned home, I knew things would not get back to normal.  I would have home health coming in daily and I would be on oxygen.  So I suggested to Chelsy that she find something to do, to keep her busy.  She then showed me a magazine she had read a week or so ago.  It was how soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan needed adopting This meant sending letters and  care packages.  When we got home. I went on line.  I signed up and Chelsy had adopted 2 soldiers.  I would also write letters along with Chelsy.

Chelsy was sad, that there were still people on the list. I told her due to my health and finances we could not adopt anymore.  So Chelsy started out by asking her class mates to help out in school.  Then she asked her Grandma if she could help donate some items.

Chelsy first appeared in the Sauk Centre Herald.  She was interviewed and had her photo taken.

Chelys and her friends decide to have a Kool-aid stand. This was to raise money for care packages.  They soon found out. Selling Kool-aid was not profitable.  Local business had heard about Chelsy's efforts and some donated items.

KSAX had called and asked if they could interview Chelsy.

Chelsy still managed to get in swimming lessons, Girl Scouts  and fishing.  Fishing is one of her favorite hobbies.  She also  continue with her TaeKwonDo.

July Chelsy started receiving names of Military from different parents, grandparents, and sisters.  So the list expanded.  We sent weekly care packages out in July.

Chelsy met Nick and Rebbecca  from St Cloud.  They both served in Iraq.  They offered their help if we ever needed it.

In her spare time Chelsy would go out and do fund raising and collect items and donations to mail the boxes.  She  mailed boxes weekly  throughout the summer.  Her main goal was to send everyone from the Charlie Company out of Sauk Centre a  care package at the same time.

August of 2006: Chelsy meets with Mike Mills and his family.  Mike lives in Freeport Minnesota. He was injured in Iraq.  KSAX  out of Alexandria came to our  home and interviewed  her with the Mills family.  We met the Mike Mills family in St Cloud.   It was a Friday morning when  the Mills family was coming to our home. We were very nervous.  We cleaned the house from top to bottom. We got out the china and crystal.  We were so honored to have the Mills Family in our home. They are  truly heroes. Chelsy's best friend Tosha who helped with the fund raising was also here for the interview and to meet the Mills Family.  We still stay in contact with the Mills family.  Chelsy presented Mike with a silver cross on a black rope tied in knots. ( She purchase a bunch of them at church)  The Mills family was also very kind to Chelsy and I.  They gave  Chelsy a donation to help with Traveling expenses.  They saw at the store that our posters were all in black and white so they gave me a color printer for my computer. ( Thank You)

Rusty from Studio 71 was gracious enough to let us put boxes in his Salon for a drop off sight for items.   Studio 71 is where Chelsy goes to get her eye brow waxed and her hair fixed,
He also donated some salon products. ( Thank You Rusty)

Blue Star Mothers of Sauk Centre saw the interview on KSAX,  They voted to mail off ten packages for Chelsy. ( Thank You Mrs Odegard for meeting us at the post office)

September meant back to school. Even though Chelsy went back to school. She still continued to send care packages.  But she cut back on her fund raising efforts.

Halloween is always a fun time of year. So Chelsy's Heroes put together Halloween care packages and mailed them to our Military. We had a lot of fun purchasing items for the Halloween care packages.  We found some really neat stuff.  In St Cloud at one of the Dollar Stores.  We sent Halloween boxers, socks, decorations, flash lights and a pumpkin pail filled with Halloween candy.  From the emails and letters, the Halloween care packages were a big hit.

Jason Davis from Five On The Road came to Sauk Centre and spent the afternoon with Chelsy producing a segment on Chelsy's Heroes for his weekly TV show. ( Thank you Jason, it was a pleasure meeting you and having you in our home,)  In the future you  will be able to view the story on the web sight.

In late fall, Chelsy's Heroes was able to move everything into an office building. The women let Chelsy's Heroes use it rent free. She still had a lease on the building.  Thank You for letting use your office space. ( Thank You Mrs Sands)  And also Thank You for the donation of Girl Scout Cookies.

Chelsy met a mother who had a son in Iraq. He is with the Charlie Co. in Sauk Centre.  Chelsy sent him a care package and letter.  She asked him to send back a list of name from the Charlie company.  When receiving this list, Chelsy mailed the people on the list a care package. ( Thank You Jeremiah)

Chelsy had put some plastic milk jugs around town with a label.  Hoping to get donations to continue efforts.  Every so often I would drive her and her friend Tosha around. They would go in and empty the jugs.  The money from these  jugs were used to buy items for care packages and mail packages overseas.  Chelsy and her friend had gone into one of the local businesses to empty out the milk jug.  We then continued going to other businesses.  Someone who saw Chelsy at a business emptying the milk jug. Then saw her go into Pizza Hut.  So this person took it upon himself to spread the rumor. That after we emptied the milk jugs we went to Pizza Hut to eat.  So this business asked us to remove the jug which was not a problem. I explained to the business that yes we did stop at Pizza hut, but only to empty the milk jug.

In November a women from out of town who heard about Chelsy's Heroes called.  She had a stack of quilts that she wanted to donate.  A local group in her community sews them and donates them to different non profits.  We sent off 20 quilts.  ( Thank You for the quilts)  Those who received one really appreciated them, and even more because they were hand sewn.

The weather was getting chilly in Afghanistan now.  Children were coming into the hospital cold and hungry,and needing medical attention.  Chelsy's Heroes sent over 500 packages of hot chocolate for the children.  We also sent cookies, granola bars and  lolly pops.

We sent off Thanksgiving care packages.  We put together Thanksgiving meal care package.  We sent  all but a turkey and pumpkin pie.  To make the meal more festive we included Thanksgiving decorated plates, cups, and napkins.  We used Spam in the place of the Turkey
and decorated pumpkin cookies and for desert.

We also sent over Thanksgiving center pieces.  We picked up some wicker horns of plenty at the dollar store and we filled them with plastic fruit. ( the inside of the fruit had powdered candy)

KSAX came to town and did an interview with Chelsy and Judy from the Blue Star Mothers. ( Thank you Judy Z for taking part in the interview with Chelsy.)

In late November Chelsy thought it would be fun to send over some artificial  Christmas Trees and holiday decorations.  We sent five Christmas Tree care packages, to five different troops.

Chelsy was asked to come to a meeting at the Legion. The Womens Auxiliary was having a meeting.  They voted on donating 100 dollars to mail off packages.  Thank You very much for the Donation.  ( Thank You Ms Peterson ( aux) for meeting us at the post office.

Chelsy decided she wanted to make a donation to the Kick FM telethon to end child abuse. So we made a small donation.

Chelsy was able to mail off around 100 care packages over the holiday.  Most of these packages went to people she did not know.  We were given the names of a medical unit in Afghanistan.
50 of the boxes went to Afghanistan.  Another portion of the boxes went to a Marine unit in Iraq, and the remaining ones went to the Charlie Company.  ( Thank You Jeremiah for handing out the packages. )

The last week in December we mailed off another 50 care package.  We were hoping to get them mailed in time for the Holidays.  It was a nice feeling watching the stack of boxes get smaller and smaller.  These packages went to a troop in Iraq.  We met a grandmother who had a grandson in Iraq. She emailed us his address.  So we sent him a Holiday care packages and he handed them out for us.  We also met a women who had a sister in Iraq. So we also sent packages to her to hand out.  It is a lot of work hauling those boxes into the post office. So we never mailed more then 20 at a time.  We would go in a few times a week or more.  We always had care packages in the car. So if we were ever out of town, and came across a post office. We would take advantage of the opportunity to mail more boxes.

Chelsy was given the opportunity to be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army around Christmas time.  She really enjoyed this and hopes to do it again next Christmas.  She looked so cute standing outside in her red apron ringing the bell.

Were given the name of a Troop in Afghanistan that had 8 women.  We thought it would be nice to put together a special Christmas care package for them.  We sent them scented soaps, body wash, lotion, bath sponges and perfume.  We also included some lip gloss, socks, T-shirts and a cross necklace.  We individually wrapped each item before placing it in the care package. ( Thank You Herburgers and Salon Alexis)

The other care packages we sent varied in items. Some had t-shirt and socks.  We sent beef jerky, powdered drink mix, granola bars, fruit in a can, pudding cups, summer sausage sticks, crackers, cheese in a can, candy, individually sized cereal box, cookies and pringles.  The contents of the boxes varied.  We would also include magazines, books and newspapers.

We also sent personal hygiene care packages.  We did not mix these items with the food. We did not want the food tasting like tooth paste.  In these boxes we put shaving cream, razors, shampoo and conditioner, lip balm, bug spray, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, body wash, eye drops, tissues, nail clippers, combs and brushes. Not every box was the same.
When putting together the care packages  We used the flat rate boxes as much as possible.  We used the longer skinny boxes for the hygiene items, and the square boxes for the food items.
This way we were able to keep them separated.

We had some food items donated that we were not able to send overseas. So these items were donated to the food shelf. Along with all the grocery store boxes. ( Thank You for putting those boxes to good use.)

Now we were in the New Year, 2007

The first couple weeks of January Chelsy's Heroes took a break from mailing care packages.  We were then told that the space we were using had been leased. So we had to move all of our stuff out. ( Thank You Mrs. Sand for donating your office space to us.)

We moved everything out of the building and into our front porch.  This seemed to cause a lot of commotion around town.  Many people were driving by and talking about the boxes in the front porch and why they were not mailed.  The front porch did have boxes in . But they were stacked on a kitchen table. So we can understand how people thought the porch was full of boxes.  There were also empty boxes we had put together and not used.  I do hope this eases everyones mind.

We were able to get enough funding to mail off  25 more boxes in mid January.  Some went to Iraq and some went to Afghanistan.  We never had trouble getting names of people to send care packages to. When we were given a name and address. We would write and send that person a care package. Ask them to see who has not been receiving regular mail.  This person would either write or email. With the names or a number.  We would send boxes.  If we were only given a number then our contact person would hand out the care packages for us.  ( If any of you are reading this Thank You )

Even though it was January, we had to start thinking about our Valentine care packages.  Those to were a lot of fun shop for and put together.  If not now, soon their will be a picture on the web sight showing our Valentine care packages.

January also meant the start of selling Girl Scout cookies.  Chelsy was busy selling cookies and getting people to sponsor cookies for our Military.  ( Thanks to everyone who helped with the sponsoring of Girl Scout Cookies.)

We sent off the Valentine care packages.  When not sending packages we would write letters to the Military in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It was now the first week of February and we had 25 more care packages to get in the mail.

My  health took a turn for the worse.  The Dr. at the Mayo read the x-rays that were taken in Sauk Centre.  I  ended up spending five weeks in Rochester.   In and out of the hospital. I had free time, so she continued to write letters to our Military.  Her outcome at the Mayo was not what she had hoped for.  Upon returning home she was back on her oxygen.

Chelsy's Heroes received an email from a women. Someone had given her the email address from a business cards. ( We print our own business cards at home)  The email was from a women who had just had surgery.  Her sister was overseas in Iraq.  One day the husband dropped off the kids and said here you can take care of them.  This lady asked if there was anyway we could help them out until they figured out what to do.  Since her sister was in Iraq.  Chelsy's Heroes chose to help this family.  We mailed them a large box of food, along with a cash donation.  For privacy reasons I am unable to mention the womens name.  You can look for her thank you letter on the web page now, and if not now in the near future.

This past spring Chelsy went to a Community Connection meeting. ( formerly Jaycee's) They donated five hundred dollars to Chelsy's Heroes.  So we boxed up Girl Scout cookies in larger boxes ( pictures can be found in Chelsy's Gallery) and we sent off the last of the care packages.
( Thank you Lois for your help transporting them to the post office, and thanks Mark for helping carrying them in.)  We mailed off four hundred dollars worth of packages.  Thank You Community Connection.  We will let you know when we will need the other one hundred dollars.
Thank You Lois for writing out the check.  We hope to get some pictures for the web sight of the Community Connection.

Since we helped out that one family with food and money. Chelsy's Heroes now decided they would help families out back home if needed.  We have received numerous request for help. We try not to ask to many questions.  We have sent care packages of food, have sent Wal Mart gift Cards and cash when needed.  It is really tough for a lot of these families to admit that they need help.  So far we have never had to turn down a family.  These families asked that their names not be published on the web sight.

Chelsy was getting excited about school coming to an end. She would be graduating. Next year would be Jr High for her.  Chelsy wanted to do something special for all the teachers at Holy Family School the night of Graduation. So I ordered carnations for Chelsy to hand out to the teachers before the mass started. The principle was given a corsage to wear.  Chelsy had been having a tough time dealing with the death of one of her friends brother.  Her friend was also graduating.  Chelsy thought it would be tough for the family.  So Chelsy handed out roses to the family and her friend.  It was a remembrance of  him not being at the Graduation. I also new the boy since he was little and the family first moved to town.

Chelsy's Heroes now has an accountant who will be taking care of the book work.  He is a friend who is Volunteering his services.  We will be sure to keep you updated on all the finances.  I hope this puts a rest to those of you in Sauk Centre who have expressed negative thoughts about Chelsy's Heroes.

We will list how many care packages are mailed out each month.   We also list how many family members we have helped out.

Make sure to check back for further updates.   The next update will be for the summer of 2007.

 I regret to say that a family member has been spreading rumors terrible rumors around town. Has been spreading some terrible rumors about Chelsy's Heroes. He was outraged that some of the food items were donated to the food shelf.  The items that were donated we were unable to send.  You can rest assured that the money is being spent on the Military.  In closing,  I  am outraged that anyone would listen to or believe the rumors that have been spread about Chelsy's Heroes.  Chelsy started this when she was 11 years old. She thought of this all on her own. As her mother I am very proud of her.  It is sad how someone can be so jealous of an innocent child, that they have to stoop to levels of starting false rumors.

In the very near future there will be weekly updates about fund raising efforts and how many care packages have been sent. I hope this will put everyones mind at ease.

We also regret if there was anyone from the Charlie Company out of Sauk Centre that did not receive a package. We did the best we could in getting the names.  I had even called and left some messages of family members asking if they would like to share their husband or sons address.

Also thank you to all of you for your support.