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CINCINNATI - April 20th 2008 - On May 10th over 100 Festival Queens will gather in Opelousas, Louisiana to tape video messages for a special DVD to be sent to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The young ladies ranging in ages from 7 - 23 years old will also be including special heartfelt sentiments on Thank You cards supplied by The Thank You Foundation. The Foundation will be sending the cards and DVD's throughout the month of May to help celebrate National Military Appreciation Month.

The project dubbed, "Operation Rhinestone" was inspired by 7-year-old Morgan Landry. Morgan grew up in a Military Family and wanted to do something special for Louisiana Soldiers. Her parents wanted to help make her dream come true, so Miranda and Michael Landry Sr., starting searching for help and found The Thank You Foundation. In 2007 the Foundation did a similar project with professional athletes in Cincinnati Ohio, and earlier this year worked with students and teachers from Pennsylvania Online Learners to produce and send a special multimedia presentation to Troops serving overseas. The Foundation has sent over 25,000 of their Thank You cards signed by school children from across the country to Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to Veterans in the United States.

Morgan's director, Robin Abshire, stated "I am so touched and proud of this young girl. She realizes that her daddy spent much of her life away and has learned he did it not only for us to be free and safe but to keep his baby girls free and safe. What a special little girl Morgan is. Our soldiers have given so much for total strangers and as we all know, here in Louisiana, we find just about anything to celebrate with our festivals and our soldiers are missing out. This is Morgan's way of sending our festivals to our soldiers."

John Guinn President and Founder of The Thank You Foundation stated "We are very excited to be a part of this project. Morgan is an exceptional young lady and I know her parents are very proud of her. These girls spend so much of their own money and time to serve their communities and now they are going above and beyond to help say "Thank You" to those who have given so much for our freedom."

Once they DVD's are produced, volunteers from The Thank You Foundation will pack care packages with items such as soap, toothpaste, and food. Each box will have a DVD and the cards signed by the Festival Queens.

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