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