On the Montel Show today, one of his heroes he honored was a little girl named Lizzie, who died at the age of 13 on May 12, 2006. She suffered her whole life with cystic fibrosis, juvenile arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, yet her goals and dreams were to do something for the troops.

She started the organization “Troop Batteries,” after she’d talked to some troops about what they are not getting that they need. Her life-long goal was to send over a million batteries before it was all over, but she didn’t make it through to see it. Operation Gratitude gave them some assistance in mailing by placing a pack of batteries in each of their packages.

Only half a million batteries had been donated before she died, but her mother and grandmother have taken the torch and carried it onward.

I wasn’t going to include the final part of this clip because Montel brings in politics on the subject about the war, but Lizzie’s “Gram” said that Lizzie had been asked those questions by interviewers before, and she said Lizzie always said “don’t talk to me about my politics; talk to me about my project. It has nothing to do with my politics.

“It has to do with my supporting the men and women who are over there doing something for me. If they get four little batteries from me, how excited will they be!? And then I know that I will have done one tinly little thing for them.” What a courageous little girl…. This will truly bring a tear to your eye - if not make you bawl outright.

Can you imagine an 11-year-old little girl with cystic fibrosis saying she has to do something for our military men and women because they are putting their “lives on the line” for us? God has another precious angel in heaven helping him welcome the new soldiers home.

Watch Lizzie’s story here.

Please folks, if you can spare a pack (or 5) of batteries, please visit her site here and donate in her honor to the troops. Montel’s Show has several links to services and organizations that you can check out to help in thanking our troops. Again, I give thanks for people like Lizzie. Read some of the letters from the troops that have written Lizzie - read them aloud to Lizzie so she can hear them now.

Cross-posted over at Stop the ACLU.