\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a torchbearer,\u201d says the bubbly 18-year-old aspiring television news anchor. In doing so, she\u2019s following in the footsteps of her hero, ABC newswoman Diane Sawyer.<\/p>\n
More importantly, Chana says, she\u2019ll be spreading the word about her international nonprofit organization, which creates and delivers cards to children suffering from life-threatening illnesses. Chana was selected for the Olympic honor because of her extraordinary charity work, which she began when she was an eighth-grader at Rock Lake Middle School in Longwood.<\/p>\n
She founded the charity, Love Letters: Random Cards of Kindness Inc., while in high school, and she brought the project to the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ last semester.<\/p>\n
To date, Chana\u2019s organization is responsible for creating and sending cards to about 50,000 children around the world. Thousands of volunteers have helped along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never thought it was going to get this big,\u201d Chana said. \u201cBut now I have all these stories I want to tell about the importance of volunteering and how it\u2019s the little things that always make people excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why she\u2019s especially thrilled that Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola selected her as a torchbearer. She\u2019ll have the opportunity to speak with reporters and Olympians after her one-mile run through Calgary.<\/p>\n
Until then, she\u2019s a \u201ctorchbearer-in-training.\u201d<\/p>\n