Jan. 16 Columbia was a special stop for Stars of Hope founder Jeff Parness of New York City.
Parness and Matt Deighton of Greensburg, Kan., are doing a bus tour called “Hope Across America,” in an effort to spread hope and carrying the message that “love is stronger than hate.”
The two stopped in Columbia to pay a visit with Carlton Thornhill, founder of Hearts of Hope. Parness and Thornhill have worked together on several disasters throughout the country.
Thornhill said he was contacted by Stars of Hope after seeing Thornhill’s post on Facebook regarding the deadly EF-3 tornado on Dec. 23, 2014. In the spring of 2015 Parness came to Columbia to tour the damage. Parness introduced Thornhill to the use of stars as a way of spreading hope, and now Thornhill is an official ambassador for Stars of Hope.
For Parness, this all began on Sept. 11, 2001. A financial consultant and entrepreneur, Parness’ business partner, Hagay Shefi, was speaking at a conference on the 106th floor of the North Tower when the World Trade Center was struck by airplanes in a terrorist attack. Parness said Shefi was able to call his wife and tell her bye before losing his life in the attack. Parness said he wanted to take Shefi’s memory and make something positive from the loss.
Parness said Sept. 12 also stands out for him because immediately people all across the country came together to help. Two years later he formed the foundation “New York Says Thank You.”
Through the foundation he and volunteers have traveled across the nation on 9/11 rebuilding things that had been destroyed by some sort of disaster. When Greensburg, Kan., was 95% destroyed by an EF-5 tornado in May 2007, members of the New York City Fire Department came to help rebuild. It moved Deighton so much he became involved, and he is now the bus driver.
From New York Says Thank You Foundation came Stars of Hope. Stars of Hope is designed to bring healing to communities and individuals who are victims of disasters, through art. One-foot wooden stars are painted, sometimes with a message of hope and taken to areas of disasters. The goal is to use the power of art to heal.
“It lets people know they are not alone in their time of despair and adds color to a bleak situation,” Parness said.
Parness calls them “a constellation of compassion.” He said stars have been placed in 270 communities and 26 different countries. A total of 140,000 stars have already been distributed all over the world. He said there are even stars placed outside the once-feared Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland.
The goal is to continue the bus tour across the country until Sept. 12, 2021. It’s not the feeling of vulnerability he wants to remember of Sept. 11, but the way the country came together on Sept. 12. That is the spirit he hopes to share and be shared. The annual costs of Stars of Hope is around $1 million. He hopes to attract some more corporate sponsors.
He said people are wired to help someone whenever disasters strike because everyone feels vulnerability. The stars, as simple as they may be, allow everyone to be a compassionate responder.
Pictured Above: Stars of Hope officials visit Columbia on Jan. 16 as part of their national bus tour. From left are Jeff Parness, founder of the organization; Carlton Thornhill, who has partnered with the group since the 2014 tornado; Matt Deighton, a Kansas man who joined Stars of Hope after his community was hit by a tornado; and Columbia Police Chief Michael Kelly. | Photo by Susan Amundson
