Sisters to get their moment of fame

The buzz on this morning's presidential visit may echo loudest in Devon.

That's the home of the Houlahan sisters - Molly, 15, and Carly, 13 - who will be waiting breathlessly on the tarmac when President Bush steps off Air Force One.

The Agnes Irwin students were selected to receive a volunteer service award for "Hives for Lives," the nonprofit company they started in 2004 to fund cancer research.

The company has donated $22,000 to the American Cancer Society and expanded to include a nationwide network of "helper bees" - kids interested in raising money in memory of loved ones lost to cancer. Products now include honey, honeycomb, beeswax candles, and lip balm.

The sisters are no strangers to positive publicity. They've been interviewed and televised, and they've received accolades from the American Cancer Society and Prudential Financial, which gave them statewide Spirit of Community awards earlier this year.

But none of that prepared them for Monday's phone call from Washington.

"I felt utterly amazed, overjoyed; the best way to describe it was 'wow,' " said Carly Houlahan.

Her mother, Chrissy, expressed it this way: "Incredibly wonderful" and "a bit insane."

Of course, she and her husband, Bart, are the ones who had to wrest Molly from her traveling theater group as soon as the curtain closed last night on Taming of the Shrew in Virginia, drive home, shuttle to Philadelphia, and then return her in time for tonight's performance.

Chrissy Houlahan said she and her husband have watched proudly as a small idea morphed into a big success.

The inspiration for the company came from Michael Otto Houlahan, the girls' paternal grandfather, who died of cancer in 2004. During a visit to the home of their maternal grandparents, where the family shared a beekeeping hobby, the girls found a niche for the honey they harvested.

They decided it could be sold "to help those suffering, to prevent others from suffering, and to honor my grandfather," said Molly.

Carly coined the motto: "Bee the cure we seek."

President Bush, who will address the 14th annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Philadelphia today, has presented almost 600 volunteer awards nationwide since March 2002.

Alyssa McClenning, a White House spokeswoman, said staffers get recommendations from local nonprofits for award candidates when the President's schedule is set. She said the Houlahans' endeavor stood out.

"It's just a great story," she said.

Carly Houlahan said she knows how her grandfather would react to the swarm of activity surrounding the award: "He would laugh."

Why?

"Every time he was overjoyed, he would laugh," she said. "That's the kind of person he was."