Thursday, December 25, 1997
Abilene couple delivers pins
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Homer and Ronda Hillis cite a Bible verse
to explain why they drove more than 800 miles to deliver 8,800
angel pins to Bible Baptist Heartland Worship Center this week.
The verse from Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
The Abilene, Texas, couple already had sent 2,000 angel pins
for distribution at last week's Celebration of Life rally to help
young people cope with the Dec. 1 shootings at Heath High School.
Teen-agers and adults who attended sported the tiny angel pins
on their collars.
The Hillises learned of the shooting shortly after it happened
Dec. 1 through an e-mail from John Hudson, a Paducah firefighter
and member of Bible Baptist who has a 14-year-old daughter enrolled
at Heath.
"I asked myself what can I do," Hillis said. "I
said that my store could make the angels, and I called all the
store managers and asked. They said, 'Yes, we'll do it.' "
Hillis immediately set up a plan to construct 10,000 angel
pins for shipment to Paducah to help the community cope with its
grief.
The Hillises own a chain of stores in west Texas that sell
craft-your-own jewelry supplies and other novelty and inspirational
items. The pins will be distributed among high school students
first and then through area churches.
Tasha Powell, 14, a Heath High freshman, took a box of pins
with her Monday to hand out to friends and neighbors. Powell said
the pins symbolize the three girls who died in the shooting and
their strong belief in God.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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