thedrifter
09-11-03, 01:46 PM
Smithtown Girl Helps Replace Flag
By Theresa Vargas
STAFF WRITER
September 11, 2003
It was a simple gesture, a letter written in an 8-year-old's voice and signed with a small, unsteady hand.
But for one St. James couple, it meant no longer being reminded of the morning they woke up a month ago to find their front yard flag gone, the cord dangling idly from the empty pole.
"Everybody else's was flying and mine was gone," said Helen Mustapich whose son John, 31, is in the Navy stationed off Iraq. "I was furious."
But Tuesday - just weeks after third-grader Kristen Noviello of Smithtown wrote several letters to her local politicians - the Mustapiches had a new flag to fly, one flown over the Capitol and presented Tuesday by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). State Sen. John Flanagan (R- East Northport) also gave the family a New York State flag.
For Kristen, Bishop presented a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. "I was so moved by the letter she sent me," Bishop said Tuesday, standing next to Kristen. "We knew we had to do something."
Kristen learned of the stolen flag from her mother, who had been checking out books at Smithtown's main library when Helen Mustapich, a typist clerk there, mentioned it.
"I was thinking it was wrong and something should be done about it," the Brownie Girl Scout said of why she wrote the letter, adding that she was hoping "this would change everything, that this would help this lady."
In the letter, Kristen writes she's "very concerned about the war in Iraq" and tells the story of "Helen."
"She has a yellow ribbon around her tree and a star in the window and she used to have an American flag outside her door, but it was stolen," she writes. "I was so upset about her loss that I thought maybe you could help her ... "
Tuesday, with Kristen watching, the Mustapiches raised their new Old Glory. Still, the scene remained incomplete. "I wish," Helen Mustapich said, "John was here to see it."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc
http://www.newsday.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2003-09/9345791.jpg
Kristen Noviello, 8, is presented an award
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liflag103449622sep11,0,1823537.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
By Theresa Vargas
STAFF WRITER
September 11, 2003
It was a simple gesture, a letter written in an 8-year-old's voice and signed with a small, unsteady hand.
But for one St. James couple, it meant no longer being reminded of the morning they woke up a month ago to find their front yard flag gone, the cord dangling idly from the empty pole.
"Everybody else's was flying and mine was gone," said Helen Mustapich whose son John, 31, is in the Navy stationed off Iraq. "I was furious."
But Tuesday - just weeks after third-grader Kristen Noviello of Smithtown wrote several letters to her local politicians - the Mustapiches had a new flag to fly, one flown over the Capitol and presented Tuesday by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). State Sen. John Flanagan (R- East Northport) also gave the family a New York State flag.
For Kristen, Bishop presented a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. "I was so moved by the letter she sent me," Bishop said Tuesday, standing next to Kristen. "We knew we had to do something."
Kristen learned of the stolen flag from her mother, who had been checking out books at Smithtown's main library when Helen Mustapich, a typist clerk there, mentioned it.
"I was thinking it was wrong and something should be done about it," the Brownie Girl Scout said of why she wrote the letter, adding that she was hoping "this would change everything, that this would help this lady."
In the letter, Kristen writes she's "very concerned about the war in Iraq" and tells the story of "Helen."
"She has a yellow ribbon around her tree and a star in the window and she used to have an American flag outside her door, but it was stolen," she writes. "I was so upset about her loss that I thought maybe you could help her ... "
Tuesday, with Kristen watching, the Mustapiches raised their new Old Glory. Still, the scene remained incomplete. "I wish," Helen Mustapich said, "John was here to see it."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc
http://www.newsday.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2003-09/9345791.jpg
Kristen Noviello, 8, is presented an award
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liflag103449622sep11,0,1823537.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: