Salute to heroes: 12-year-old Kernersville girl with cerebral palsy & epilepsy honored for work with veterans
Lexi Eyer helped to start the Tree of Valor program, a traveling exhibit showing photos of service members
Lexi Eyer helped to start the Tree of Valor program, a traveling exhibit showing photos of service members
Lexi Eyer helped to start the Tree of Valor program, a traveling exhibit showing photos of service members
The American Red Cross is honoring Lexi Eyer of Kernersville with a Salute to Heroes award for her love, appreciation, and work on behalf of veterans.
She and her mother, Lori Egerter, helped begin the Tree of Valor traveling exhibit which features photos of thousands of former and current servicemembers.
Lexi, who turns 13 on Sept. 28, was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Her older brother, Josh Groft, enlisted in the Marines in 2017 and it was hard on Lexi when he deployed in 2018. While he was gone, the family decided to decorate a Christmas tree with pictures of their own military friends and family members as a way to show their appreciation.
While Groft was in Okinawa, he sent the family a photo of himself with fellow Marines and a caption that read simply "family." The impact on Eyer and Egerter was profound.
From that moment on, Eyer loved finding and collecting as many photos of veterans as she could.
"The project became this thing where every time she looks for a veteran now, she's looking for him," Egerter said.
In 2019 she dressed up as "Miss America the Beautiful" for Halloween and handed out flags to veterans, even interacting with them through preloaded phrases on her tablet, such as "My mom calls me 'Miss America the Beautiful' because I love the flag and the Star Spangled Banner so much."
As the family continues to acquire more and more photos, they decided to decorate more and more Christmas trees with them. That's how the Tree of Valor project was born. Today, they have 146 trees and thousands of pictures. Veterans love seeing it and they love seeing her, too.
"How often in your life do you get to meet somebody who touches your heart instantly? That's what she does," said Don Timmons who served in the army from 1969-1970.
"She just has that genuine love for veterans and the fact that they served our country and I think it extends from her love of our country also," says Valarie Ward, who is Lexi's nurse and also served as an Army Combat Medic from 1980-1983.
Lexi's mother says they have taken their exhibit all over the state and have had interest from as far away as Iowa. As she gets older, their focus may shift to bigger veteran issues like mental health and the adjustment to civilian life.
Egerter and local vets are thrilled she is receiving this award.
"I say thank you. Thank you for recognizing someone who much of the world does not," Egerter said.
"It just makes your heart swell knowing that there are young people out there that care enough to do something and actually be active," said Tom Thompson who served in the Navy from 1970-71.
The Salute to Heroes Awards will be on Sept. 22 at the Millennium Center in Winston-Salem. You can learn more about the program and buy tickets to the event on the Red Cross website.
TikTok videos of Lexi and her brother reuniting in 2019 when he returned home to see her have been viewed nearly 10 million times. One version has music behind it and the other does not.
To submit a photo of a servicemember to the Tree of Valor exhibit, visit its Facebook page.