• Name: Bailey
• Age: 11
• Activity: Started her own organization to honor and thank military men and women
• Grand Prize Award: $5,000 to Hero Hugs and $5,000 to her school in Florida, plus Nicki Fleming’s Whole World Collection
• Nominated by: Her mother, Diana

When my daughter Bailey was 7, our home was hit by a hurricane. Bailey went with me to a military checkpoint to get ice and water. She was bothered by people complaining to the soldiers instead of saying thank you. I tried to explain how people were stressed, but Bailey said that the soldiers left their homes and families to come help us and we should be saying thanks.

Bailey said that the soldiers left their homes and families to come help us and we should be saying thanks.

Bailey went home to gather neighborhood kids to create thank-you cards that we later took to those soldiers. She then started “Hero Hugs” so that soldiers would always know someone appreciated their service and sacrifice to our country. Bailey, now 10, encourages kids nationwide to honor these men and women, and her organization has sent more than 21,000 packages valued at more than $175,000 to soldiers!

She gives up her weekends to stand in front of stores and tell people about her organization so she can raise money to pay for the packages. Over the last three years, Bailey has given more than 3,000 hours of her time making sure our soldiers know someone cares. And every time her organization wins a prize or award, Bailey thinks of ways she can use it to do good for others or to reward the kids who help with Hero Hugs.

For her organization’s mascot, Bailey made a bear she named "Hero" and dressed him in camouflage, then sent him to Iraq. When the soldiers started sending her photos of Hero acting like a soldier, Bailey came up with a way to help kids, too! Her program, “The Adventures of Hero,” helps show thousands of kids what it’s really like for their parents serving in Iraq in a kid-friendly way.

I, along with thousands of soldiers and their families, know Bailey is very deserving of American Girl’s 2007 Real Girl of the Year Award.