'Amy's World Peace'

One of the best things about America can be seen on the sides of cars and trucks -- when someone named "Bob" or "Joe" or "Judy" has created a product or dreamed up a service, designed a logo, slapped it on their vehicle and started their own business.

You have to get licenses and such, and jump through other official hoops -- but you don't need anyone's permission .

Fact is, that's where we get the world's Microsofts and Yahoos: someone has an idea and runs with it.

That's America.

And so is helping others. One of the great untold stories in today's world is how many Americans are quietly, without recognition, traveling all over the world to help people of all nationalities in all kinds of places in all types of ways. If you're in even a small group, chances are that someone in the group has been on a mission trip, or knows someone who has.

That, too, is one of the best things about America.

Now, imagine putting those two things together -- the freedom to start your own organization, and the desire to help the world. How cool is that?

It's something Amy Gaylor Shulin doesn't have to imagine. She's done it.

The former Augustan had it come into her heart to connect the schoolchildren of America with those in Africa. So she formed a nonprofit called "Children Inspiring Hope."

Her modest beginnings include taking kindergarteners' drawings from C.T. Walker Elementary School to Ho, Ghana -- and bringing drawings back. She's also visited several other schools in the Southeast United States.

It sounds simple enough, though not easy -- try going to Africa and back for any reason! But Shulin has seen the profound implications of connecting children from across the globe.

They ask questions. They try to send gifts. They get a glimpse of each other's worlds. They develop curiosity and empathy. They look at a globe now with the feeling that they've got friends on the other side of it.

These are the seeds of world peace, and Shulin is determined to see them germinate.

As global as her vision is, Shulin sees individual children. And she's no stranger to that, having helped coax and counsel young victims of sexual abuse at Augusta's Child Enrichment before leaving for travels that put new hope in her heart.

Already her vision is expanding. She's raising funds to take a shipment of discarded medical supplies and equipment to Ghana through MedShare International in Decatur.

Modest? So far. But already there's a class full of young African boys and girls now who, as they grow, when they hear about America they won't think about politics or war or ideological struggles. They'll think of their beautiful friend Amy who thought enough of them that she came across an ocean to share time and timeless treasures with them.

What a great job. And she's the boss!

She just needs one of those signs on the side of her car: "Amy's World Peace."