June Update

Another great mailing for June. 2500 cards were sent out this month!  Thank you! Thank you to those that sent in postage donations.

A great big thank you to Envelopes.com as well for a donation of envelopes as they saved me big! I was out and they got them to me in time for the shipment! Thank you so much!

A continued supporter (thanks Linda!) to CFS has shared some links to where she gets some military themed supplies so I am sharing with all of you…

www.servicememories.com    

www.creatingmilitarymemories.com

They will be a great resource for our Armed Forces and Veteran’s Day mailings!

A few reminders for the next mailing;

• Blank handmade cards please – no store bought cards. A small greeting on the inside is OK but please make sure there is plenty of space for the soldier to write notes home inside.
  
• Black and dark cards must be lined with light paper please
  
• NO GLITTER unless you rub it really hard and not one flake comes off on your hand.
  
• Due date is August 1!

Thanks again for your support! Remember I couldn’t do this without YOU!!!

Pam

May Update

My visit to the post office brings 2600 cards over to the troops this month! You all have been very busy! I saw some very creative Father’s Day cards and some very patriotic 4th of July cards. There was a huge amount of general/thinking of you cards and not so many birthday cards this time around.

I also got an amazing amount of postage donations this month and was humbled beyond belief. Thank you all so much. For all of you that have been donating I have good news, I am officially a 501C3 Non-Profit Corporation in the State of New Hampshire! I have filed for my Tax ID number and have the paperwork to register with the Attorney General.

I will be out of town all next week for work so if any of you send emails and I don’t answer right away that is why. I’ll get back to you as soon as I return.

Remember, next round is all general cards.

Thank you all again for your continued support!

Pam

April Update

Hi Everyone!

We’ve had two successful mailing’s since my last update. The first mailing was for Easter/Passover cards. In that mailing 2500 cards were sent out. Thank you all very much! Because of that support I am able to send at least one box with approximately 300 cards and envelopes to 6 different troops that are deployed and most times two boxes get sent each month!

The second mailing was for Mother’s Day and Armed Forces Day cards.  The Armed Forces Day cards were not as many as I had hoped unfortunately, there were only about 300 of those so not every soldier got one. Add those total’s to the Mother’s Day mailing and that mailing total was about 1800 cards.

I have received a few thank you notes from the troops and need to scan them in and share them with you, unfortunately my main computer in the house has crashed and that is the computer that the scanner is hooked up to so I am on my laptop. I will share them as soon as I can.

I also need to remind you all that if you are making cards on black and dark papers please add white paper inside the card. I have had to hold back several cards for fixing due to this. I can’t send them like this. Try to remember when you make the cards that you can only use a light colored pen on the inside of those cards as they are now and if those soldiers don’t have access to cards at all do they have access to a white pen? 

Again, thank you all for your support, I can’t do this without you.  Also, I hope if you sent your email in your box of cards you have received a note back from me, I have tried to reply to everyone. If not I apologize!  For those of you that have just sent a snail mail address, I am a terrible letter writer but I promise, I will get to it one day!

Our next mailing deadline is right around the corner if you can believe it! Father’s Day and Independence Day cards are due on May 8th. I seriously cannot believe it’s April 9th already, where does the time go?

Pam

Clarifying–Armed Forces Day Cards

A good question came in – if you want to write a note inside the cards for the troops, not on a sticky note this is OK. We are changing things up a bit and sending a second set of ‘Thank You’ cards to them troops this year per a great idea from a few supporters this year.

Hope this clarifies things for everyone.

February Update

Hello everyone!

Our February mailing turned out to be pretty successful. When I mentioned that I didn’t have many St. Patrick’s Day cards, you all came to the rescue and started making them and we were able to send out a bunch of them after all! I sent out 3500 cards this month. I’d say each box had a good 100 St Patty’s Day cards in each box.

I also got a 1000 envelopes donated from a very faithful card maker! Thank you so much Candy!

And to all of you who sent in postage donations, thank you again for your support! I hope to hear from the state on my non-profit paperwork soon and maybe you can officially start getting a real tax deduction!

I also got a note from Action Envelop that they have changed their name to Envelopes.com so please make a note if you have them saved to your favorites.

One of our next mailings will be for Mother’s Day and Armed Forces day cards. I have decided to switch this up a bit and make the Armed Forces day cards personalized. So please include a note to the soldiers in those cards like you do with the Veteran’s Day cards. I know it’s short notice but a few supporters have mentioned it and I think it’s a great idea so I wanted to start doing this. If you have already sent cards it’s not a problem because I am sure the soldiers have people they also want to send cards out to as well.

If you have any questions at all please feel free to shoot me an email!

Pam

Checking In

Just a little update before the February 12th deadline. I have only received about 75 St. Patrick’s Day cards (50 of those I have made) out of 2000 cards. So if you haven’t made any cards and plan on sending some in I could really use some of those please! Thanks!

And thank you to those of you that have sent in cards so far. I’ve got a lot of Thinking of You, Birthday, Miss You, Just Because, and Friendship so far which means by the deadline we should be in great shape.

I also received some wonderful notes and I have to say thank you for those as well and if you have an email address please include it when you send a note so I can write you back! I am a terrible snail mail writer so if you want a note back an email is the best way to get one!

OK that’s it for now, I’ll be back in two weeks with another update!

Pam

Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year All!

I must say our first shipment for the year has been a successful one! Here is what my scrapbook room looked like when a couple of friends came over to help me with this overwhelming pile:

And the results were 7200 cards to send to the troops! That’s 20 Large Flat Rate boxes full! Amazing huh? I know I say it over and over again but I just can’t thank you all enough! I will try to send out a personal note to each of you that enclosed your emails as well within the next few days, as you can see I’ve been a bit busy! I have to say thank you again to the Card Maker Magazine readers who are sending due to the Reader’s Reach Out article! Please keep them coming!

Also, thank you so much for the postage donations! They are greatly appreciated and with my shipping costs now having quadrupled much needed!

We need envelopes!!! I finally had to break down and order envelopes for the first time as we actually ran out! I found a great place to get them though so if anyone knows of someone who doesn’t make cards but wants to help they can always send an envelope donation! Action Envelope their web address is: www.Envelopes.com

and here are then envelopes we need:

http://www.envelopes.com/invitation/square-flap/a2-envelopes

Just a few reminders again:

Cards should be blank inside, a small stamped greeting is OK but there must be room for the soldiers to write handwritten notes.

Dark cards must have a white or light paper added inside. The soldiers don’t have access to light colored pens to write on that dark cardstock. Same for envelopes, please add a white label to them if you send a dark envelope.

NO GLITTER unless it’s Ranger Stickles or it’s covered with something that makes it not fall off if you rub it!

Handmade cards only please!

Thank you all again and enjoy the new year and what it brings!

Pam