Legion family sings for teen with Cystic Fibrosis

On Monday, Rosie Albright of Avon, Ind., smiled as she listened to a personalized song composed in her honor by attendees of The American Legion’s 2015 National Children & Youth Conference on Sept. 19. In years past, Rosie and her late sister, Melanie, attended the annual conference to share their story of hope.

Both sisters were in need of life-saving lung transplants from their battles with Cystic Fibrosis. Sadly, Melanie was unable to continue her fight against the disease and passed away Jan. 14, 2014, at the age of 19. And six months to the day that the family lost Melanie, on July 14, Rosie received a lung transplant.

“The significance of that date was just God saying it was all going to be ok,” said Aimee Albright, mother of Rosie and Melanie. “Rosie’s transplant redeemed that date.”

The song created for 15-year-old Rosie was developed and produced by the Songs of Love Foundation, a Child Welfare Foundation grant recipient. The nonprofit foundation produces personalized uplifting songs, free of charge, for children and teenagers facing medical, physical or emotional challenges.

“It was incredible to create a song of love for Rosie since what she is going through is extremely challenging for her, and we wanted to bring a smile to her face in the best way we know how – through her very own uplifting personalized song of love,” said John Beltzer, president and founder of the Songs of Love Foundation.

The lyrics for Rosie’s song was centered around her personality, favorite color and favorite activities, such as singing and performing in plays, jumping on the trampoline, dancing and swimming. The Legion family, National Headquarters staff, Beltzer and Doug Lippert, development director for Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA), sang the chorus of the song and “everybody had a blast,” Lippert said to Rosie when he gave her the CD of the song. “You gave a gift to everybody just by letting us sing for you.”

Lippert has worked with the Albright’s for the past five years as they fundraised through COTA for Melanie's and Rosie’s life-saving lung transplants. Thanks to her lung transplant, Rosie was able to perform in the musical Shrek as Goldilocks without needing oxygen assistance.

"I cried a lot during (Shrek) because there was all of these firsts from seeing her in the last show that she had done," Aimee said. "We had an oxygen tank in both wings during her last performance; she couldn't make it through a whole scene without going to sit down. And when she did Shrek, she made it through the whole show without stopping. She could finally be just like everybody else."

Rosie, who wants to be a chef or zoologist, said she "likes the video" and is looking forward to sharing it with friends.