A Nice Surprise

On Monday I had the honor of speaking for the Molly Stark Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of their Regent’s had seen the article my local paper had done on Cards for Soldiers and she contacted me and asked me to come and tell their members a little bit about the program. I was a little nervous but Michael and Josh came with me for some moral support (Jake was on a school trip to NY City). I prepared a brief 10 minute speech and brought some sample cards and hoped for the best since I’m not the best public speaker. They made me feel right at home, as it was a very small group and in the childhood home of General John Stark a very personal space. At the end of my speech much to my surprise they presented me with a “Certificate of Award for Women in American History” as well as a check to help out with costs towards postage. I was so humbled and honored I could have cried. Here is a photo of me standing in front of a photo of the General with Phyllis Gagnon, the Vice Regent of the Chapter and woman who found me and invited me. (Photo by Mr. Gagnon) After my speech the women I spoke with were so kind, two of them came up and gave me donations as well. Another one showed me some beautiful cards she made from dried flowers and asked if we could use them, I told her absolutely! We then had refreshments and a tour of the historical boyhood home of the General. It was a great afternoon and I was nervous for nothing. So thank you so much to the women of the DAR for having me and for your generosity!

Pam

More Sorting Today

My friend and I sorted through another 1400 cards today! That’s a total of 4400 Christmas cards. I have put all the birthday, thinking of you, thank you, etc aside to sort to send off next month since I have 14 Flat Rate boxes to send this month! That is HUGE!

Thank you all for your support! The cards, the envelopes, the postage money everything you do! And for your notes, you are all so wonderful!

Just a couple of things I need to ask…

If you are making a card out of dark cardstock, please line the card with white paper inside, the soldiers probably don’t have easy access to white pens and if the card is dark inside it’s useless to them.

A small stamped greeting inside is fine but please try to leave the inside blank, remember these are for the soldiers to use to send home to their loved ones.

No store bought cards please, this is for handmade cards only. If you have store bought cards you want to donate, the USO sends care packages to the troops all the time and they are a huge organization that has plenty of money to spring for the postage! ;)

Thanks again to all of you!

Pam

Today’s Mail

Just thought I’d share with you a photo of what was waiting for me when I got home today, this is all Cards for Soldiers mail!!!

Thanks to all!

Pam

WOW! Thank You CardMaker Magazine & Faithful Followers of CFS!!

I can’t believe that one half page article in a magazine I’d never seen before can have such a huge response!  Back in June I was contacted by CardMaker Magazine asking if they could post about Cards for Soldiers in their Reader’s Reach Out portion of the magazine. I had no idea what the article would look like, I just provided some general information on the program itself. Well I started getting packages in the mail at the beginning of this month with notes about how they read the “Reader’s Reach Out” article so I of course ran to B&N to get the magazine.  The article was very accurate (the only thing that has changed is the envelope donations (but that’s another blog posting!) and I enjoyed reading it as well as the rest of the magazine (as a matter of fact I have found myself another subscription!). 

The packages have been pouring in! I mean our mailperson has been leaving those big white boxes that they use to deliver mail on my porch! It’s been wonderful. And we haven’t even reached our deadline and we have are you ready for this…

3000 Christmas cards!!!

I haven’t even counted all the birthday, thinking of you, etc cards yet! If you look back at past months I send on average 1500-2000 at most. This is just amazing!

And for the faithful followers of this blog that send me packages each and every month, thank you again, for everything! Your kind notes, emails and your support in my project. I can’t do this without you all! Thank you so much for all the envelopes, the postage money help and your amazing cards! You all are just the best and I have enjoyed getting to know some of you via our email chats!

I have to give a big shout out to my friend Patty, we try to get together every month to make cards. Yesterday she came over and did the hard stuff with me of sorting! And believe me this was the biggest sorting I’ve ever had. So thank you Patty for all your help!

And watch for my next post because I’ve got a great soldier story to share!

October 11, 2011

As of today I only have 250 Veteran's Day cards to send over to the soldiers. 100 of which I have made. I am hoping before the end of the week I get a bunch more in. We have had such an abundance of cards coming in this year so I know we can do better than this to show our support. Won't you all please make a thank you card for our soldiers? Take the time to write them a note? My hopes is to get as many cards to as many soldiers as we can! Please!

Thank you!

September Update

Can you all believe it’s September already? I for one can not! Fall is just around the corner and as I sat and sorted cards for several cards for the Halloween/Thanksgiving mailing I thought even harder about why we are doing this program. Today as I finished the sorting and counting I came up with a number of 2500 cards! I was astounded by your support and generosity once again. So many of you sent envelopes this time, THANK YOU! I am still having a hard time getting donors so this is huge to me! I too am so thankful for the postage help too! You all are amazingly kind! I have to say please to those of you that apologize for not sending postage, please do not apologize, your support with the cards is so much more important! I have very limited time to make cards, I only got 25 made this time so as you can see that is 1% of that we have to send! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for each and every bit you do!

For those that are new to the program and have any questions, all of our requirements, mailing schedule, and mailing address are always right on the right hand column of this blog.

And before I close, I just have one more important reminder, this program is specifically for BLANK HANDMADE CARDS. They can have a small greeting stamped inside but no writing on the inside of the cards, they are for the soldiers to use to send back home. This program is not to send cards for the soldiers to read, I am getting a lot of those lately, and unfortunately, I can’t afford to send those. If you have cards like that please donate them to the USO as they send care packages to the troops all the time.

Don’t forget, for our very next mailing we have our Veteran’s Day mailing which where we make a card for the soldiers with a note in the card for them to keep! General cards will be accepted during this mailing as well.

Pam

A Contest

I received some information from a Gulf War Veteran about a contest a company named AirSoft is holding. Now some of you may have never heard of this company but if you have sons like I do you might have! Anyway there is a prize in it for you as well as Cards for Soldiers if you enter the contest through this blog so here is the info:

The winner will receive a full Airsoft loadout including a helmet, goggles, vest, combat suit, gloves, pistol, holster, rifle, and more. With a full loadout, the winner will have everything that they need and more to head down to their local Airsoft field and start playing. The loadout is worth $500, and no purchase is necessary.

You can check it out at http://www.airsplat.com/Categories/ERS.htm?param=yes

In addition, Airsplat will donate $1,000 to the website that refers the winner. So the more of your readers that click on this link and then sign up for the contest, the better chance Cards for Soldiers will have of winning the $1,000 donation. Just think of how many envelopes that will buy!!!

So what are you waiting for it should only take a few minutes to enter to win right?

Contest Link Code*: Win a KWA Airsoft rifle and full Airsoft loadout worth $500 from Airsplat

August Mailing

I wanted to let you all know that I sent out 2500 cards this mailing! I mailed out 8 boxes of cards and envelopes. Amazing effort this round. Thank you all! Thank you to those that are putting in postage money as well because with a $95 tab this month it was a HUGE help! 

Bad news, we are officially out of envelops.  I am going to have to purchase them for the September mailing so if anyone cares to send envelopes with their cards this time I'd appreciate it as I'm having a heck of a time getting some donated.

I plan on working on some Halloween and Thanksgiving cards today as it's my day off and I got some great Halloween papers at the LSS last time I was there!  The next mailing is right around the corner if you can believe September is almost here! Where did the summer go?

Thank you all again and  keep those cards coming, they are so appreciated as you can see from the letter below!

Pam

Sharing a Letter Received

Here is a letter I received from one of the places where the cards are being sent…

You should be able to click on it to enlarge enough to read it.

Pam

Updates

Hi Everyone!

I am sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve updated. Life has gotten in the way of blogging! Even my personal blog has taken a backseat to life lately! :)

Just wanted to pop in and say thank you to you all for all the continued support! Between June and July we will have sent 2000 cards to 6 different mailing addresses in Iraq and Afghanistan! Yes we have gone from 3 to 6 troops we are supporting so keep those cards coming! Now that I am working on an AFB and word has gotten out of what we are doing people are actually contacting me to send them cards! How can I say no? So some packages may not have as many but at least they are all getting some right? Right!

And I have to add a huge thank you to all of you that are sending a little extra postage money! You all don’t know how much this means to my husband and I! Every little bit that you send really helps out my budget because 12 boxes at $11.95 a piece per month adds up, so thank you from the bottom of my heart!

One more favor to ask, if any of you out there know of a good contact for envelope donations I would love it if you could drop me a note at cardsforsoldiers@gmail.com and let me know. I’m having a very hard time getting them and will have to start purchasing those myself soon as well. 

Thank you all for your continued support! I get so many letters of thanks for what I am doing, and yes, I sort the cards and pack them up and send them out but if it weren’t for you all sending them to me, I’d have nothing to sent but the ones I make with my friend every mailing so THANK YOU!

Pam

Happy Memorial Day

Thank you to all of those that serve our beautiful country past and present…

Weekend Crop

I went to a weekend long scrapbooking crop up in the White Mountains this weekend and had a little challenge. I told the 42 women there about our program for Cards for Soldiers and told them for every card they brought me for the soldiers I would put their name in a drawing for a bag full of scrapping goodies. At the end of the weekend we had 108 cards for me to take home! One woman named Gail was very happy to take the cards home! And on a much happier note she told us a story of a little 3 and 4 year old girl and boy who had receive some home made cards in their Easter baskets this year from their Daddy who was deployed. It was a story that made me tear up more than a little!

Here is a photo of all the cards:

And when I got home I started my job of unpacking and then sorting the cards for the Father’s Day mailing and I have to say I have my work cut out for me! Thank you again! I will be sorting and counting for some time this month! You have outdone yourselves again and I appreciate your hard work! I’ll be back in a few days with a final count!

Pam

WOW!

I just spent the last 5 hours sorting cards and we have 1657 cards to send this month! I can’t thank you all enough for your support! I’ve also received a lot of postage money this time around as well which with 7 boxes to send I have to say is a huge help on my pocketbook! Thank you all! I have really enjoyed reading your notes too and learning about you all!

Thank you all again for your support and remember without you we would not be able to do this!

V-Day cards, in the mail

Hi folks!
Just a quick update from me. I mailed a package today containing 184 cards, just from me. I made over 100 V-Day/love cards, some B-Day cards, and some all-occasion cards for a new unit we are supporting. Pam has also shipped to two other units, for a total of three units we are now supporting. Please spread the word! The requests for these cards is increasing, and we can use AS MANY cards as you can send. Please check the guidelines for cards:

- handmade only (you can use pre-made notecards - I got packs of 8 for $1 at Target - as long as you add embellishments to make them handmade. I added scalloped paper, ribbon trim and a stamped greeting to the front of each card, cute!),
- blank inside - the service men/women use these cards to send back home
- A2 size, or include an envelope for each card if they are not the standard A2 size

Check the side bar for the schedule and mailing themes. Remember, we ALWAYS accept general occasion cards.

Our troops love the pick-me-up of a handmade card to send back home, and the families/loved ones love receiving these cards from them. We can't do this without you, the cardmakers. Tell all your friends, have a card-making evening or rainy Sunday afternoon card-making party. There is no minimum or maximum limit - send whatever you can. Make 'em nice, so the troops will be proud to send them back home!

Thanks for your support! We pay for the mailing out of our personal pockets, so if you want to toss in a dollar or two for postage, it will be appreciated by everyone!!

Chris