VERO BEACH — If fundraising were an Olympic sport, Pauline Adams would have won the gold. That’s because Pauline, owner of I’ll Never Tell jewelers at 3351 Ocean Dr. in Vero Beach, just reached her goal of donating $10,000 in one year to the Military Moms Prayer Group from the sale of “Braveheart Pins.”
The heart-shaped pins, encrusted with red-white-and-blue crystals, sell for the modest price of $12. Pauline has earmarked all the proceeds for the Military Moms Prayer Group, a nondenominational nonprofit organization based in Vero Beach that supports U.S. troops through prayer and annual care-package drives.
“Pauline has done the seemingly impossible,” says Pam Proctor, president of the prayer group. “She has taken a simple pin and turned it into an icon because of her passion for the troops. The pins have been flying out of the store all year, and we are grateful to be the beneficiary.”
As it turned out, two members of the Military Moms Prayer Group helped put Pauline over the top in her quest to reach $10,000 by this summer. The first, Lynn Keeney, a former resident of Stuart who now lives in Connecticut, placed a phone order with Pauline that pushed the order close to the top.
Lynn, whose son, Lance Cpl. Benjamin Fauzio, is due to deploy with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, purchased a pin for a friend whose son was about to graduate from Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island.
“It is so touching to think of the positive ripple effect that the Military Moms Prayer Group and Braveheart Pins have had on so many with the proceeds supporting our deployed men and women serving our country,” says Lynn.
But the purchase that hit the jackpot was by Wendy Segalla, a resident of Vero Beach whose son, Lt. Col. David Segalla, helped fashion a plan to train the Afghan police during a tour in Kabul last year as head of a NATO training mission.
He’s now chief of the Command and Tactics Division of the U.S. Army Police School in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.
“Wendy walked in to buy one pin, and when she found out that I was six pins from the goal, she snapped them up,” said Pauline.
That’s the way it’s been for Pauline ever since she started selling the Braveheart Pins in July 2011. One visitor from out of town purchased 50 pins to give to his employees, while a Vero woman bought 200 pins as gifts for guests at a going-away party for her grandson, who had just enlisted.
But Pauline was especially touched by the response of her fellow business owners on Ocean Dr. when she went door-to-door in early July to enlist support for the last leg of her mission.
The owner of a dress shop opened his wallet and purchased $100 worth of pins for his employees, while customers and beauticians at a local salon didn’t hesitate to buy Braveheart Pins to help her reach her goal.
“I’ve always wanted to do something special for the military,” said Pauline, who hails from a long line of veterans. Her grandfather served in France in WWI, her dad fought in Korea, and her uncle was on a Navy demolition team.
Her husband, Ben, a Navy veteran of Vietnam, patrolled the Gulf of Tonkin on the aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then there are sons, Scott, 38, who spent four years in the Marine Corps, and Ben, 37, who followed his dad into the Navy.
“When I met the Military Moms Prayer Group, I knew this was the organization I wanted to work with,” said Pauline. “I went searching for a piece of jewelry to use as a fundraiser, and when the Braveheart Pin crossed my desk, I knew this was it.”
Having reached her $10,000 goal for this year, Pauline is going for another $10,000 donation to the Military Moms Prayer Group by 2013.
“I’ll continue to sell the pin, because I want everyone to remember that our men and women are fighting for our freedom,” she says. In fact, a new shipment of Braveheart Pins has already arrived and is selling out fast.
“People know and appreciate the sacrifice our troops are making,” says Pauline. “Our pin gives each person a small part in saying ‘thank you for your service’ again and again.”
