Week
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March 13, 2002
Inside the Register
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Sept. 11 `United We Stand' bracelets to benefit charities
Aluminum bands remind wearer to never forget terrorist attacks
By Alwen Bledsoe
Six months have passed since last year's terrorist attacks, and though the furor of news coverage and national grieving have subsided, some are still on a mission to make sure America never forgets. Among them is Kelley Horton, who designed and sells bracelets to benefit charities and to help keep the memory of Sept. 11, 2001, alive.
"How can we forget about it?" she asks, marveling at those who would return to a pre-Sept. 11 mindset. "I do believe that I'm supposed to be out there and saying, `Hey, a year hasn't even passed and are you saying we're just supposed to forget and you're just back to where you were on Sept. 10?'"
Horton began the project last September as a benefit for victims of the attacks. Her bracelets are reminiscent of POW-MIA bracelets that honor those still unaccounted for in the Vietnam and Korean wars. The $10 bracelets of red, blue, and silver aluminum display a small American flag and the words "UNITED WE STAND Sept. 11, 2001." Proceeds go to various charities, many of them benefiting military or victims of the attacks.
Horton is passionate about her project — some say passionate to a fault, she confesses.
"I'm sorry, I'm on my soapbox," she'll apologize, pausing in the midst of a torrent of patriotic, religious and impassioned conversation.
"I just believe in these so much," she said.
The project was born out of Horton's frustration at how little she could do for those most affected by the attacks. She had stared unbelieving at her TV during the days following the attacks. She had donated money. She'd given blood. But it wasn't enough, she said.
Sitting on her stoop doing her daily Scripture reading one morning, Horton's mind kept returning to the question of how she could help raise money for the victims. She finally alighted on the idea of the bracelets.
With the legacy of her own entrepreneurial family to guide her, Horton set about designing and marketing the bracelets. She contacted the Red Cross and those who design POW-MIA bracelets for advice. She asked businesses and celebrities for money and support. It's been a difficult journey, she admitted, and it's been hard to garner the funds and support she needs. But certain God was telling her "you're on the right track," Horton took out a loan on her house. The bracelets are now being manufactured in Taiwan and have begun making modest sales.
"If this helps even one group, I don't know what I'll do except cry," she said.
Horton recently met Denise Madden-Darnell, secretary for social concerns at the Archdiocese of Denver. Madden-Darnell agreed to raise awareness about the fundraiser in parishes and schools in the archdiocese.
"I just thought it was a nice thought and a nice way for us to look in a positive light at what we can do for the victims and for peace in the world," Madden-Darnell said.
Horton sells the bracelets directly to individual consumers and to groups who wish to use them for fund-raisers. They are also being sold by the Army and Air Force Exchange service, Horton said.
"I think it's an honorable thing that she's doing. She's not out to make money for herself, but out to help others," Madden-Darnell said.
For Horton, the bracelets represent a call to remember the love and compassion that so many exhibited in the days following Sept. 11, 2001.
"During Lent we're supposed to remember that sacrifice an innocent man made for us," she said. "And all of these innocent people, if we don't learn a lesson here —not a major political lesson, but a lesson about how we relate — if we don't learn that, then shame on us."
Horton's bracelets are available on-line at www.UnitedBracelets.com. She can be contacted at 303-788-0402 or kelley007@earthlink.net.