NATICK, Mass. (Oct. 29, 2014) -- Sapphira Murphy doesn't have an easy life. She suffers from mental health issues, which create challenges in many things that kids take for granted.
Sapphira has spent the last six years in and out of various placements, including hospitals, emergency rooms, residential treatment centers, day schools, community-based acute treatment, etc. This year has been especially difficult for her and her whole family because she spent three months in the hospital, two of those months 100 miles from home. Since May she has been in a residential treatment facility 60 miles from home.
Sapphira has faced challenges for her entire life, yet she remains positive. More than anything, Sapphira has a huge and giving heart for others.
While most families are preparing to take their kids out trick-or-treating, her mother, Linette, was heartbroken because that would be just too overwhelming for Sapphira. She blurted out that she just had to go trick-or-treating so that she could get a big huge bag of candy to send to our military troops overseas. With that statement, she broke her mother's heart.
The right people find ways to turn lemons into lemonade. That is what Linette Murphy intended to do.
So this Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sapphiras-Virtual-Trick-Or-Treat-for-Troops/1562763020613982 was established so that people could "virtually trick-or-treat" along with Sapphira. The thought was that individual families could post pictures of themselves and their kids in their costumes with the box of goodies that they were shipping off to "Operation Gratitude." Sapphira could see the pictures of everyone in their costumes and all the huge boxes of candy being shipped. It has grown beyond that.
A little girl in New Hampshire is taking along an extra bucket trick-or-treating with a picture of Sapphira and the Operation Gratitude logo. She will trick-or-treat for Sapphira and then contribute the candy. She also got up the courage to stand in front of her church congregation and tell them about the project. The church has had a collection box out all month, and at their Halloween party, the kids will be writing thank-you notes to troops.
In northern Maine, throughout the month of October, the kids in the church that her mother grew up in, and where Sapphira was baptized, are collecting donations, writing thank-you notes, and making paracord bracelets.
A karate school in Massachusetts is asking that all the kids coming to the annual Halloween party bring donations of candy and toothbrushes.
A little girl in Massachusetts who has food allergies and can't eat a lot of her Halloween candy is going to send her candy to Operation Gratitude.
Corporate offices around the country have collection boxes out. Which office will collect the most donations?
The Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts profiled Sapphira's virtual trick-or-treat for troops page on their "Troop Tuesday" segment of their website.
"I share the posts and pictures and stories with Sapphira each week when I visit her, and she is so amazed and happy to see that even though she may not be able to leave the confines of her circumstances to trick-or-treat, she certainly can make a difference," Linette said. "My hope is that Operation Gratitude will get a bag of candy as huge as Sapphira's heart."
For shipping instructions, consult the Operation Gratitude page (http://opgrat.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/halloween-candy-for-the-troops/). Be sure to include the donation form in all your boxes. On the line that says "Organization," please fill it out with "Sapphira's Virtual Trick-Or-Treat for Troops." You can also add the name of your own organization there.
Please send in all packages by November 15 and post pictures to the site of anything you send in so Sapphira can keep track of all the virtual trick-or-treating.
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