Just a day after homecoming, Amanda's life long friend Chelsie had a terrible automobile accident, suffering severe trauma to the brain and entering a coma. Only days later, Amanda created a web site (http://www.geocities.com/love4chelsie/) so that people in Lonoke could send the family messages of support while Chelsie was in ICU at a Little Rock hospital.

As Amanda so humbly says, "I had no idea this tiny little page on the web was going to generate so much love from people across the world." In the past 6 weeks, the web site has received just under 10,000 visits. Nearly 200 pages of messages have been left by persons not just from Lonoke, but from all over the world. The messages have been a mechanism of healing for Chelsie's classmates and friends as they move forward in life.
Chelsie's family posts daily updates on her progress so that friends and family can stay involved in her recovery. Pictures are posted of Chelsie in various therapeutic activities to educate readers on coma and recovery, a reality quite different from movie and television images. Friends also contributed pictures of themselves with Chelsie through the years as a way of reinforcing the love and connection they have with her.

One definition of hero is a person who helps others move from despair to hope. The web site that Amanda created and maintains has helped not just one person or family, but an entire town transform a moment of despair into sustained hope. Now, other families going through similar experiences with a loved one are using the site to educate themselves on coma recovery.

Amanda Harris is a hero who will never know how many lives have been touched by one tiny web page created by a grieving teenager, generating hope and defining love and friendship when life is most fragile.

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