“All-Stars” Set Record for “Stars of Hope”

There are now thousands of new stars in Ellijay and each one was born out of a disaster. This weekend, hundreds of volunteers, many of whom are disaster survivors, packed up their hammers, nails and hardhats and came to North Georgia to rebuild an animal shelter. The Build An Ark Animal Rescue was reduced to mere rubble after it was slammed by two tornadoes at once in an April 4th storm. When the founder of the New York Says Thank You Foundation heard the story behind the shelter and began learning more about the Ellijay community, he did what he does best: Jeff Parness began assembling his volunteers from around the country to come to north Georgia and rebuild. Over the years, the group has started many traditions. One of those traditions is called the Stars of Hope.

The Stars of Hope are painted by children and sent to other communities rebuilding from some sort of disaster. Each star is cut from plywood is less than a foot in size, but its message is always powerful. Children are given a star or stars to paint as Mom or Dad helps the foundation doing volunteer work. Inevitably, the children almost always find that one word or message to put on their star that inspired them. And thus, each star becomes a work of art.

The tradition was started in 2007 by children in Greensburg, Kansas, who survived a powerful F5 tornado that pretty much leveled the entire town. They painted 220 stars and then placed them on every street corner in Greensburg, Every year thereafter, more stars were made at other New York Says Thank You sites. Up until this weekend, the most stars ever made at one site was about 500. Well, Ellijay was all about sending a message this weekend and the Stars of Hope just seemed like a perfect outlet. By the end of the weekend, volunteers had cut and stenciled 6,422 stars. Of those, 3, 555 had been painted with a special message.

“We knocked the socks off the old records.”
– Kelly Buddenhagen
Stars of Hope Team Member, Ellijay

Buddenhagen, was acknowledged for her hard work and impressive record-setting contribution at the ‘passing of the tool belt’ ceremony held Saturday afternoon. The Ellijay stars will now be sent to Joplin, Missouri, North Dakota, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Japan. The Ellijay group also plans to go to Ringgold to deliver “Stars of Hope” from the Build An Ark Animal Rescue barn-raising event this weekend. A date for that trip is still being worked out.