Teen wins national honor for project that helps veterans

A Fort Valley teen is changing the world one smile at a time.

Amelia Day’s Operation: Veteran Smiles service project has won her the 4-H Youth in Action Award for Citizenship.

Each year, the National 4-H Council presents four national awards in the categories of agriculture, healthy living, citizenship and STEM. Day, the daughter of Ken and Kellie Day, is the first 4-H student in Georgia to ever win a Youth in Action Award.

“It’s one of the highest honors an active 4-Her can get,” said Vincent Thomas, the Houston County 4-H program assistant. “She’s among the most decorated Houston County 4-Hers we’ve had. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of it.”

Day, an 18-year-old, home-schooled student who will graduate this spring, created Operation: Veteran Smiles in 2012 after accompanying her dad, who served in the Marines, to a Veterans Affairs hospital for treatment. She learned that many veterans are in hospitals far from their hometowns — and their family and friends.

She started out delivering handmade cards to patients at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, and she added care packages after discovering that many veterans are homeless or unemployed. Each care package includes a toothbrush, toothpaste, tissues, soap and usually a deck of playing cards.

“The care packages give a smile, and they give hope to veterans whenever they are receiving treatment,” said Day, a 4-H member since she was 9 years old. “It’s always great to go and deliver them and see their smiling faces.”

More than 4,000 cards and care packages have gone to the Dublin VA since 2012, with three or four drop-offs a year. She recruits other young people to help her deliver the items and spend time with the veterans, Thomas said. The patients are surprised but thankful, and they are often eager to share stories with their young visitors.

“Some of them will tell you that they haven’t seen their family in a while. They’re happy to see us,” Thomas said. “I think that we get more from them than they get from us, honestly. They get those care packages, but we get those memories.”

Supplies are donated by other 4-H groups, churches, businesses and organizations or purchased through grant funds. Community groups and 4-H clubs often help pack the kits and make the cards, Day said. Another 500 cards were created and distributed across the nation through a YouthMPowers project.

Day is scheduled to accept the Youth in Action Award at the National 4-H Council Legacy Awards in Washington, D.C., on March 21. She’ll receive a $5,000 scholarship for college, and sponsor U.S. Cellular will use Operation: Veteran Smiles as an employee community service project, Day said.

Over the next year, Day will act as a 4-H spokeswoman on citizenship. She’s traveling to Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Chicago, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, just this summer, in addition to being a 4-H camp counselor. She plans to take college core classes online so that she can apply for culinary school in a year.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Teen wins national honor for project that helps veterans."