I make a lot of cards.
Every fall I make Christmas cards to send to all my family and
friends. I try to keep up with all the
thank you, get well, birthday and sympathy cards when I have the time. Sometimes I forget to mail the cards once
I’ve made them (sorry if I missed your birthday this year!), and I always have
a lot of extra cards from swaps that I don’t know what to do with them. I mean, you can only send out Christmas cards
once a year, right? So what do you when you have lots of extra cards and nowhere
to send them? Send them to a soldier!
I’ll be the first to admit it…I talk a lot about supporting
our military, but I don’t really do
much to show it. I post things on
Facebook and I send out chain emails with slogans like “Thank a Soldier” and “Thank
You for Serving.” I even buy a few extra
Girl Scout cookies and gather up extra canned food and toiletries to send
overseas. Sadly, I don’t ever take that
next step, and I always feel like I don’t do nearly enough.
Don’t get me wrong. I
really do mean every word of those Facebook posts and emails, but like many of
you, I feel a little shy when it comes to thanking our military in person. I find it more than a little difficult to
walk up to a stranger in uniform and thank him for his service, and I have
never gone down to the airport to wave at soldiers coming home on leave. Even among our family and friends who’ve
served, it is often a topic that never comes up in conversation.
These young men and women do deserve our thanks and support.
Many of them leave behind husbands, wives, and children for a year or
more…all in service to our country so that people like you and me can sit here
in the comfort of our homes and make handmade cards. They give up most of the creature comforts
that we take for granted, and they don’t ask for much of anything in
return. Most of them don’t even earn
enough money to live above the poverty line.
That’s why sending cards to active-duty servicemen and women is an important
way to show our support and thank these fine young people for their sacrifice.
What can you do to help?
Send them some cards! There are a
number of organizations that could benefit from any extra cards that you might
want to make. Whether it’s sending
individual notes of thanks to service personnel, or putting together boxes of
cards for soldiers to send out to family, these groups have taken care of all
the logistics necessary to make sure your card gets where it needs to go. The only thing they ask is that you observe a
few simple guidelines:
- No glitter! Glitter is a safety hazard for our troops because it could make them visible to someone with night-vision goggles.
- Cards must be size A2 only. That’s a standard 4.25” x 5.5” card. You can get two cards from a single piece of 8.5” x 11” cardstock.
- Quality is more important that quantity. Remember that for some, your card may be the last communication with their family. Please help make sure they get the very best – they deserve it!
- Some dimension is okay, but please do not create extra-tall dimensional cards. The bulk makes them difficult to mail and reduces the number of cards that can be shipped out in one box.
- Do not send store-bought cards. The idea here is to provide something handmade.
- Keep the recipient in mind when you design your cards. Please do not send items that say, “Wish you were here” or use any kind of explicit images or sentiments. Do not use skulls, graves, or death images or sentiments for Halloween cards.
- For more specific requests, please check the requirements of each particular organization. For instance, Operation Write Home specifies no handwritten sentiments on the inside or outside of the card, but Any Hero cards can be handwritten.
Want to know where you can send your cards? Here are some
great organizations to check out:
Send Blank Cards
as Well as Greetings to Soldiers:
Operation Write Home – http://operationwritehome.org/welcome/
Sends boxes of cards to soldiers so
they can write home to their families.
With each box, they also include “Any Hero Mail”, which are cards and
letters of support.
Send Blank Cards for Soldiers to Use:
Cards for Soldiers -- http://www.cardsforsoldiers.blogspot.com/
Sends blank cards for soldiers to
use.
Send a Greeting or Letter to a Soldier:
See
Operation Write Home above
Send Items or Packages to Soldiers:
Soldiers’ Angels - http://soldiersangels.org/
Sends personal items to veterans.
As it so happens, I know a young man who went to school with
my daughter who is currently serving in Afghanistan. I only knew Brian in passing when my daughter
was in school, but I got to know him a lot better when he became a lifeguard at
the pool where my son competed in high school.
Brian deployed this summer, and I promised him some handmade cards (his
mom is an avid scrapbooker!). If you’d
like to help me send Brian some cards, I will be accepting deliveries from now
through December 31st, 2012.
Simply follow the guidelines above, include a personal greeting in the
card, or write a letter, put it in an envelope (but don’t seal it!) and send it
to me. The shipping address is on the Contact Us page of the
Crafty Neighbor website. I will send
whatever cards I receive out to him each week.
I hope you will consider sending some cards to troops. They really do enjoy receiving all the mail
with kind letters of support, and they really appreciate the blank cards so
they can write home to their families.
When your loved one is half a world away, that card can make a huge
difference.
Now go make some cards!
Cindy
