It takes great courage to admit that you are out of control, that you need help. There is a constant struggle within yourself as you battle to find the strength to ask those you love to find for you a place to recover. There is an omnipresent fear that those you love will not support you, and that you will find yourself alone in your quest for what can only be called redemption. It is a private battle, one that takes place in the confines of your body, mind and spirit--places that you can not escape or hide from.

Imagine having to live this in the public eye.

This is what AJ now has to do, and he has a long hard road ahead of him. We'll never know for sure, but try to imagine how he must feel. Guilt: for letting down his friends, his brothers, but maybe more for letting down a legion of fans. Shame: that he couldn't control this himself, and that he couldn't regain it once he lost it. Fear: that maybe he'll never kick this. Weak. Alone. Depressed. The list goes on and on.

For so many of us, AJ has been a source of inspiration. He has shown us how to be free, how to be ourselves, and he's taught us to take pride in what and who we are. He's never offered excuses for his actions, choosing instead to say 'this is who I am, take me or leave me.' Now it's our turn to show him how much that means to us, and that we support him no matter what. Let him know that we see in him such incredible strength for recognizing his problem, and then admitting it and seeking help.

Show that you recognize how hard that must have been for someone as proud as he is.

This ribbon campaign is to show your love and support for him. Show that by tying one on your bag, or pinning one to your jacket. Hang it up in your room or your office and when someone asks you what it's for, tell them what it's for and make sure they leave knowing how proud you are of AJ. This isn't easy for him, or for anyone involved. AJ and the Boys need to know that we'll stand by them, and we'll still be here when they return...no matter how long it takes.

To get your ribbon, simply email us at ribbonsforaj@yahoo.com with your name and address, and we'll put it in the mail. There's no charge because this isn't about money. It's about AJ. And sign the guestbook and let everyone else know what you're thinking about this.

Thanks, Emma and Mandi

Update...2:00 pm (EST) 7/31/01 Hey, everyone. Sorry it's been so long since we updated. It's been a bit crazy now that the mail has started pouring in. We have been getting a lot of emails from people who have sent money and have yet to recieve their ribbons. We are doing our best to keep up, but it hasn't been easy because of work and everything. I promise, though, you will get them. We've already recieved responses from some people who have already recieved their ribbons and so far we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about them. We're glad you guys like them!! Anyways, I haved just learned that our mailbox is full so send any new requests to ribbonsforaj2@yahoo.com. Also, please continue to send and comments or feedback to ribbonsforajcomments@yahoo.com. OK, that's it for now!!

Update...5:00 AM (EST) 7/14/01 Well, it's been a few days since we've updated and, let me tell ya, we have quite the update for you this morning. It's a long story as to how we did this, but on Thursday night we personally handed Nick a letter and four ribbons for him, Brian, Howie, and Kevin. We didn't see him read it because he was on his way inside when we handed it to him, but we happened upon him again last night, Friday. We asked him if he read it and he said "Yeah, with the ribbons, right?" Well, we can't even express how happy we were when he said that because we know he read it and remembers it and, well, we went on to have a brief, but awesome discussion with him about this whole thing and we can honestly say that Nick is so incredibly appreciative of what all of us are doing to support all of them. It would be impossible for us to try to repeat the exact conversation that we had, but let's just say that Nick told us to keep this up because AJ really needs us right now and he thanked us for starting this. And he thanked all of you for being a part of it. Given this piece of info, we decided to set up another email account because we have a feeling that we're going to get a whole lot of emails about this and the ribbon request box is getting pretty full. So, if anyone has anything they want to say about this, email us at ribbonsforajcomments@yahoo.com and we'll do our best to get back to everyone, but again, bear with us because we've got a whole lot of email to deal with and a whole lot of ribbons to make and mail out this weekend!! Also, just a brief note, we have enlisted the help of a publicist (thanks, Michelle!!) and she has sent press releases to several major radio stations, TV stations, TV shows and magazines. We've already heard from friends that they've been discussing it on the radio here in our area, but if anyone else hears anything about it, we'd love for you to email us at ribbonsforajcomments@yahoo.com and let us know so that we can keep track of everything. Thanks again, everyone!! We'll keep you posted!! God bless!!

Update...7:45 PM (EST) 7/11/01 Hi, everyone!! We just wanted to update you all on how things are going. We've now had almost 2000 requests for ribbons!! This is amazing!! It's times like this that We're proud to say that We're Backstreet Boys fans!! We have definitely proven to the world how much we love the boys!! Speaking of which, we've gone global!! We've recieved ribbon requests from all over the world!! Again, we're doing our very best at handling all the emails etc...and we'ew working on getting a bigger better guestbook because all FIVE of them are already full. Anyhow, we are going to be sending out the first batch of ribbons this weekend. We're not sure how many that will be, but we're going to spend the whole weekend preparing and mailing the ribbons so we'll have as many as we possibly can on their way!! We have also begun to enlist the help of some of our friends who live nearby so we will have all of their names up here soon too! And to think that when we started this, we thought that the two of us could handle it alone!! We should've known better that there are TONS of fans out there that were also looking for a way to support AJ, Nick, Howie, Brian and Kevin through this rough time! All of your emails have been awesome! So many people have emailed us sharing their own stories of personal encounters with similar problems as the one's that AJ is facing now. To those people, we want to say thank you for sharing with us! And to all the people that have offered to help us out, thank you to you, too. We are doing our best to keep up, but your offers are appreciated and we'll let you know if we need anything! Thanks again, everyone, for all the support, prayers and well wishes!! Keep the faith!!

Update...3:00 PM (EST) 7/10/01 We have just got to say that the response to this has completely blown our minds. We can't get over the amount of love and support that all of you have shown to AJ and the rest of the guys, as well as the support that you've shown us. We have honestly never felt so much love in our entire lives and we just want you all to know how much we appreciate all of your help in getting the word out about how much we all love and support AJ. As of right now, our email account is having some issues as in, it won't let us in. We're doing our very best to keep up with all of this insanity, but we need to be able to get into our email to do so. So, that said, bear with us once again while we try to get this under control. And thanks again for all the help and support. We know that AJ and the Boys appreciate all the love that is being sent their way right now!!

Update...1:45 AM (EST) 7/10/01 Unfortunately, we have to add to the above letter. We know we said that we wouldn't charge for the ribbons, however, we have had such an incredibly overwhelming response, there is just no way that we can pay for this. It will cost over $300 just to cover the requests that we've already gotten. When we started this a few short hours ago, we had no idea that it would escalate into what it's become. So, that said, many of you have offered to send us money to help to pay for this, and we've been telling everyone to donate to Save the Music instead. Well, needless to say, we have to take that statement back. Instead, we are asking that everyone send us $1.00 (US) cash (checks will be too much of a hassle) to cover the cost and anything that is left over will go to Save the Music. So, to anyone who has already emailed us, if you're still interested, please drop a dollar in the mail to Emilie Duggan-Hicks, 114 North Maple St. Apt. 2, Hadley, MA 01035. If anyone that has already emailed us no longer wants one because of the $1.00 charge, email us again and let us know so that we can take your name off of the list. Again, we feel terrible asking for money at this point, but we just don't see how we can pay for all of this. We weren't expecting such an incredible response. Thank you all so much for your support. We know that AJ appreciates all your well wishes. Hopefully this will show him how much we love him, Nick, Brian, Kevin and Howie and help him get well again.

Update...11:45 PM (EST) 7/9/01 Our guestbook is full so please try to sign the second one and we will continue to add guestbooks as long as we have to. Also, our mailbox is getting VERY full so please bear with us if you get an email back saying that the box is full. Please keep trying!! We've already gotten HUNDREDS of emails and we're doing our best to keep up with them. Also, many people are asking if they can send us money towards the ribbons. We appreciate the offers, but as of right now, we're all set. We're asking instead that people make donations to Save the Music in the name of the Ribbons for AJ campaign since it's one of his charities and it's another great way to show support!! Thanks again for showing AJ how much you care about him!!

The guestbooks are filling up fast so we've added several guestbooks to accomodate all the messages of love for AJ. One thing that we want to point out is that it has come to our attention that many of the messages are being cut off. For some reason, these guestbooks only allow the postings to be a certain length so try to keep the postings short and to the point so that they don't get cut off. Thanks!!

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