I'll Stand By You

The inspiring true story of how one woman-who People dubbed "the saint of Staten Island"-is changing the world, one child at a time.

Fourteen years ago, Elissa Montanti was a lab technician in Staten Island. She
had, in the span of only a few years, lost her beloved mother, grandmother, and
high school sweetheart. Hoping to find a way past her own troubles and the
depression and panic attacks that quietly crippled her, she decided to raise
money for school supplies for the children of war-torn Bosnia. But at a meeting
with the UN ambassador she learned that those children didn't need pencils.
He showed her a photo of a boy who had lost both arms and one leg to a land
mine; these children needed a lot more.

Elissa went to Bosnia, brought the boy and his mother back to Staten
Island, and arranged for free prosthetics and medical care. The Global Medical
Relief Fund was born.

Working from the walk-in closet in her home, Elissa has since brought
more than 150 children injured in war zones-Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
and elsewhere-to the United States, where, with the help of the Shriners
Hospitals for Children in Philadelphia and a network of doctors, nurses, and
community leaders, they receive free housing and ongoing care.

In I'll Stand by You, Elissa tells the stories of these children and the soldiers,
doctors, and ordinary Americans who have come to their aid; the resistance
she has faced for helping non-Americans; and the heartwarming tale of how in
helping these children, she healed herself.

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