From the back of the theater, Helice ("Sparky") Bridges strode briskly down the center aisle to greet Fort Irwin garrison commander Col. Jon Braga.
For the past forty minutes on the afternoon of August 26, Braga had been presenting more than a dozen awards to Fort Irwin garrison employees, sharing friendly stories of each awardee, as they had made their way to the center of the theater stage to be recognized.
"Colonel Braga, I have a Blue Ribbon for you," Bridges spoke, as she focused all of her five feet two inches into the eyes of the trim, 6 foot, 3- inch Special Forces Soldier.
"It says 'Who I am makes a difference,'" Bridges said. "And I would like to honor you….You're a hundred percent with every person. You truly value each and every person. Not only that, but you are super-grounded and fun! And I adore you for that. Will you accept this gift? Can I place it on you?"
After he said yes, she placed the small, five-inch long blue ribbon on his Army battle dress uniform.
"It goes above your heart," Bridges pronounced.
"And where does it go?" Bridges asked the crowd. They chanted back, "It goes above your heart."
"This is about your greatest dreams coming true," Bridges said to Braga. "…When you look at this ribbon, know that one of the most inspiring, adorable grandmas on this planet has stopped to honor you… and on this ribbon, there is a community of cheerleaders. In order to get the cheerleaders jumping for your dream and take the spark from my heart and put it in the ribbon by going 'Bing!'"
"B-I-N-G! Everybody, say it with me. On the count of three," Bridges asked the audience. "Ready, 1-2-3."
"BING!" they chimed, laughed, clapped and cheered in appreciation.
Turning to the audience, Bridges declared, "I'm 72 years young." She paused, then continued, "I've learned over the years that every person is valuable. Each of you makes a difference…
"Let me take a moment to look at each of you…"
Bridges gazed silently at the rows of people. The silence grew from seconds into a minute. Some shifted awkwardly in their seats, then relaxed.
"In a minute or less, a life can change," Bridges told the audience.
Bridges recounted how, at 37, she was very successful in business, but had a very controlling, abusive husband. No one really knew her torment.
The Blue Ribbon that Bridges presents to people today captures the moment she realized what she herself was missing, and decided to leave her million-dollar mansion, her Mercedes, and her husband.
In 1980, after working on a kibbutz in Israel for six months, Bridges moved to Haifa to learn Hebrew. After her studies, as she returned home, she would smile and greet everyone she met with "Shalom!" A university professor, impressed with her approach to life, invited her to attend an Arab/Israeli conference, where she impressed the conference director. He appointed her to open and close both days of the conference.
When Bridges returned to San Diego in 1982, she found the work that has consumed the rest of her life. "When I got back, people would stop me in the street and say, 'You're that weird lady who gave me that button and told me how I did matter. They told me how that had changed their lives," said Bridges.
Bridges then asked the audience to do what she had just done with Col. Braga, with the person seated next to them.
"In fifteen seconds, tell your partner how much they matter to you. If you don't know them, just look in their eyes and tell them whatever comes to your heart that will support and encourage them. You may be thinking about it now, but you really don't know what you are going to say.
"After fifteen seconds, pause, and switch," Bridges instructed.
The audience then paired up and went through the simple process but difficult exercise of feeling each other out and learning about their partners. For some, it was a co-worker; for others, it was someone they didn't know. For the next several minutes, all worked on engaging with each other, and then they used their fifteen seconds to say a few sentences of heart-felt appreciation for one another. The room buzzed with energy, an energy that stayed with them as they walked into the bright sunshine to go back to work.
"The first time I met Sparky was in 2012," said Renita Wickes, Fort Irwin's community relations specialist, who helped arrange Bridges' visit to Fort Irwin. Because of her volunteer work with breast cancer survivors, Wickes was invited by a good friend to go with her to a Difference Makers International conference in San Diego to confer with hundreds of community leaders, youths and adults, about giving back to the community.
"Not just teens, but adults. It's just amazing what her program does to people, to their lives," Wickes said.
At Fort Irwin Middle School and Teen Center, Wickes saw the magic again, as she watched how Bridges took on some half-interested youngsters and taught them how to look at their lives differently.
"I thought it was going to be a tough crowd," Wickes said. "But she moved them. It was very emotional, even for me, because I wasn't expecting it. At the end of her time with them, it definitely showed that she touched lives very quickly. Those kids who were hurting were definitely connecting to her. In a matter of minutes, you see how they looked at each other. You don't see that every day."
As Bridges had told the garrison audience earlier that day, "As a society, we've gone to into outer space…yet the last frontier is inner space---where people acknowledge, encourage and support one another, so that children and adults alike may live, love and dream. I believe that we have all been born with a gift that can help create sustainable peace and prosperity, for all people and life on our sacred planet.
"My mission is to return to the dream of possibilities and to bring about this inner peace. Not one of us can do it alone. It takes all of us joining together, lifting one another up and reminding each other that who we are does make a difference."
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