A mother of 4 was trying to leave Dallas in a storm and instead had a chance encounter with a soldier that changed her life and those of thousands more. She's this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
Trish Shallenburger was trying to fly home from Dallas after a conference back in 2007 but the weather was not cooperating.
For reasons she still doesn’t understand, she had changed her seat a few days before her flight.
After a 3 hour delay, she ended up in the row with the only empty middle seat on the plane. The other person in her row was a soldier from Ft. Hood who was heading to Iraq.
The soldier reminded Trish of a young Ron Howard. He had red hair, fair skin and was very polite, she said.
She immediately noticed that his hands were a mess.
“The tops were very sunburned and his palms had these quarter-sized welts on them that looked very painful,” Trish said.
She gave him so hand crème so he could get a little relief.
“He shared with me that he was a Christian. He said, ‘I’m not afraid of dying but what I’m really afraid of is getting sunburned. If I can’t handle Dallas, how am I going to handle Iraq’” Trish said.
Trish offered to send him sunscreen for the duration of his tour, but he declined.
“He said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable receiving something from you knowing that not everyone will receive a mail call,’” Trish said.
Then she offered to send sunscreen to his entire unit. How many soldiers were in his unit?
“He said 177,” Trish said.
She kept her word. She gathered enough sunscreen and wrote and got help from the community to write hand written letters to the soldiers in his unit.
That's how non-profit, A Soldiers Hands, began.
Fourteen years later, Trish is still sending sunscreen, hand written letters and care packages to military members around the world.
We're proud to call A Soldiers Hands this week's KRLD difference maker.
To donate or help, go to asoldiershands.org.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.