Giving Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am thankful for so many things in my life and I am not going to list them all here but I do have two very important ones that I will post here…

I want to give thanks to all of you card makers out there for keeping this program going strong for the last few years. Without you all it can not survive! I am very thankful to each and everyone of you that I receive a package for!

I give my heartfelt thanks to each and every man and woman in the armed services who protect and serve for our country every day. Thank you for all you do. For those that are deployed I pray that you stay safe and come home to your families very soon! For those soon to be deployed my thoughts and prayers go with you as well!

Pam

More to Share

I received another wonderful note from a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force who is deployed and using our cards and wanted you all to be able to see what your generosity mean. I’ll put her words in a different color so you know when it’s me again!

Just wanted to say thanks SO much for the beautiful cards and sentiments. I'm an avid letter writer and enjoy making, writing and sending cards across the world. I've probably taken the most cards and used every one of them!! Thanks again. Your passion and care for us over here means a lot and makes a HUGE difference. I appreciate you!

Julie
JULIANA M. ASTRACHAN, Lt Col, USAF
Deputy Division Chief, ANP Personnel
CSTC-A, CJ-1 (Kabul, Afghanistan)

I also had to opportunity to volunteer yesterday for a USO event. My husband, 14 yo son, and I helped stuff 10,389 care packages for the troops. It was a very upbeat and fulfilling event. There were all 4 units of the armed forces represented there as well as people from all over New England who came to help. I was told the USO puts on events like this all over the country so if you can ever get involved in something like this I highly recommend it as it although it was a lot of work it didn’t seem like it at all!

Have a great week!

Pam

A Letter of Thanks!

Received this in the mail yesterday and wanted to share with everyone that makes it possible!

Cards Update

I just mailed 750 Christmas cards to the troops! Our last mailing for 2009! Thank you everyone so much!

I just need to give you all a few reminders:

Please send handmade cards only, no store bought cards. While we appreciate that you want to help this is a very small outfit where I am shipping these cards myself and when I receive a huge box of store bought cards I just can't pay to ship those over to Iraq. Please know that I did donate them to a good cause.

Please make sure the cards are BLANK inside. They are not meant for the soldiers to receive, these cards are to be used for the soldiers to send back home to their loved ones since they don't have the means to purchase cards in the desert. If you want to post a note to them you can put it on a sticky note inside the card.

Cards must be A2 sized which is 5.5 x 4.25 (which is an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper cut in half and then folded in half) unless you plan on sending an envelope that fits your card. I don't have envelopes that fit any other sized cards.

Thank you again for all your support!

Cards! Cards! Cards!

I just want to say thank you! My mailbox has been overflowing with cards every day! Thank you everyone! I can’t tell you how excited I am to come home and see a package every day addressed to Cards for Soldiers. I am going to be busy sorting today and hopefully mailing our last 2009 mailing this week! Here’s looking forward to a successful 2010!!!

Oh and I have to say a very SPECIAL Thank You to our anonymous Envelope donor. You know who you are and your generosity was just overwhelming and so very appreciated!

Sample Cards

We have gotten a lot of questions about what the cards should look like lately so I thought I’d just post a few samples. These are by no means what you have to send just a few we have received in the past. You can click on the photo to see it larger.

2010 Mailing Schedule

For those of you that have emailed asking about the new mailing schedule here it is. I will also post this on the sidebar as soon as the 2009 mailing dates have passed so it’s there for easy access.

ROUND 1: Cards should be received by January 3, 2010
Valentines Day/Love theme
St. Patrick's Day
Purim

ROUND 2: Cards should be received by Mar. 1, 2010
Passover
Easter

ROUND 3: Cards should be received by March 28, 2010
Mother's Day
Armed Forces Day

ROUND 4: Cards should be received by May 9, 2010
Father's Day
4th of July/Indpendence Day

ROUND 5: Cards should be received by June 11, 2010
General occasion cards

ROUND 6: Cards should be received by July 30, 2010
Patriot Day
Grandparent's Day
Rosh Hashanah

ROUND 7: Cards should be received by September 19, 2010
Halloween
Thanksgiving

ROUND 8: Cards should be received by October 14, 2010
Veteran's Day (please write a note to a soldier in each card)

ROUND 9: Cards should be received by November 5, 2010
(NOTE: due to the timing of holidays, this deadline comes up fairly soon after the previous deadline, so just be aware it might sneak up on you!)
Christmas
Hanukkah
Kwanzaa
New Years

Thank you to everyone who has participated in our Cards for Soldiers program throughout the last three years, and all who are interested in participating and showing support to our troops overseas!  We are looking forward to our 4th successful year!

A Note of Thanks

Since I am now working on an Air Force Base I have plenty of places to send our handmade cards. Over the summer I brought in a huge batch to my office for our Facility Manager to ship off with some care packages and he sent me back a note that they had been sent and I was happy. What I did not expect was a note of thanks from where they were sent to. I thought I'd share the note I received in my inbox when I got to work one day:

“My name is Sergeant First Class Thomas Mitchem. I am the senior chaplain assistant on Camp Eggers in Kabul Afghanistan.

We received the box of home-made greeting cards. Normally we receive so many gift boxes from so many thoughtful Americans that it is hard to send individual email or letters of thank you to each one. Many of the boxes we receive are forwarded to smaller more isolated posts. However your gift of cards we set up outside our office where there is a lot of heavy foot traffic. It was my intent to send you a picture of the display we had created.

Ever hear of the phrase, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?" The majority of the cards didn't last a week in the display.

What I'm trying to tell you is that the people here very much appreciated the gift of you and your friends. Our small PX does not have a selection of cards so those cards that you made were a wonderful welcomed gift. Be assured that those cards are being mailed all over God's great green Earth.

On behalf of the men and women of the US Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines I'd like to thank you and your friends for your thoughtful gift.

Sincerely,
THOMAS MITCHEM
SFC, USA
CSTC-A Senior Chaplain Assistant”

So thank you all for all you do, it really does make a huge difference.

~Pam

No Glitter, please

If you're planning to make cards, please leave out the glitter. When our soldiers get glitter on them, it shows up on night vision, and they become glowing targets to the enemy. I know it makes the cards look nice, but we do want all our soldiers to come home safe and sound. So, please leave the glitter at home. TIA!!!

Cards Needed!!!

I've now got two different contacts to send cards to over in Afghanistan! I need to start sending cards immediately! Please see card schedule to the right.

Remember Veteran's Day Cards are not blank, you will write a thank you note to the soldiers. I am hoping to get loads of them so that we can get one to as many soldier's as possible!

Thank you again for your support!!!