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FOR THOSE WITH QUESTIONS IN REGARD TO SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS
Here is an area that we can get some answers going to the questions that you were not able to post after the other post was locked. We will do our best to answer them.
If you have no idea what I am talking about click on the link below.
Do we have a specific person we are sending to? Has this already been set? I know that the post office will not accept any mail sent to "Any Soldier? http://www.anysoldier.us has some great information on it, including where mail can be sent, how much is too much to send etc.
The beauty of this is that we are not using the post office at all! Except to get it to me! So the inside envelope can be address to any soldier or our troops or anything else that you like...I personally like, to a soldier far from home...
K
I am so excited about this venture!! We are a military family and I think this will be great. We just had a lot of our troops leave for overseas and they really need our support!! Thanks for the awesome idea!! I am going to go and make a card right now!! :lol:
I think the answer to that is easier to understand if you can understand the feeling of being 10,000 miles or so from home with no daily access to telephone communication or the ability to drive a few miles and say hello to your family.
One of the main observations about Veterans of the wars in Viet Nam and Korea was that they did not receive recognition or affirmation from the American society as a whole. I think our Country has done a much better job of supporting the military (no matter what one's political views are) this time, and perhaps our VA hospitals will fare better in the future because of a healthier communication of that support. A card from a stranger may seem like a very inconsequential thing to you or me. I can tell you, though, as a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy, I saw letters from kids work wonders for patients. Even if it seems "lame" on the surface, there is a break from the awful job they have to perform.
Mother Teresa once said, " A little thing is a little thing, but faith in a little thing is a very great thing".
I believe that.
I also believe that Moms dealing with cranky youngsters should also be barraged with anonymous support. I am not anonymous, but 19 years ago, I was experiencing the same nap-avoidance rituals!
Hang in there!
__________________ "A little thing is a little thing, but faith in a little thing is a very great thing." Mother Theresa
I know this sounds cynical but is a soldier that receives a card from someone that they don't know and probably won't ever know really going to care?
Don't mind me, I'm just grumpy because my 2 year old won't take her nap and it's the 3rd day in a row....
Mo
Hang in there! It does get better. That is such a tough age.
As for "really going to care," the answer is absolutely! I've been involved in sending letters over to airmen from our base. I know first-hand that the letters/cards are SO appreciated. And if they don't want one, they don't have to take one. The card can be given to someone else. Unless you know someone who is deployed, you can't imagine what they live like over there. And "mail call" is a very lonely time for some people.
Maybe your 2-year-old can help stamp some things. I know stuff from children is especially appreciated. Hey... bribe him/her to take a nap by stamping a couple things after the nap... I know bad parenting (bribing) but what ever works is my philosophy!
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
I think this is a wonderful idea!! I just spoke to my 7 year old daughter, and she wants to help me make some cards....she loves to draw, and I explained to her how a lonely soldier would love to see a pretty picture, especially when they are so far from home. This is also a great way to spend an afternoon on a 108 degree day in Phoenix!! :lol: Thanks again, and we will be sending an envelope your way....
I am RIGHT there with you skpupy68!! I have a 2 1/2 yr old too! Since summer, the big girls are home & there is nothing doing with a nap! I get help from my 11 yr old that plays with her. Mostly for bribes tho! Put the baby down for bed early and stamp!
Only mine is only 20 months old. She's mostly good and even lets me stamp if she gets to do some type of "coloring" (paints, crayons, markers, playdoh, etc)
I know that my group of stampers are trying to plan so we can perhaps do a big stamp-a-thon type thing to mail out... they've all been tickled pink by the idea!
A possible silly ?, since I don't know how military mail works at all, but if we were to send a blank card that they could send home, would that peice of mail need a stamp?
Speaking from experience with a hubby who has been deployed mulitple times already, they LOVE to get mail from home! It doesn't matter if you know them or not. They like kowing that people at home appreciate what they are doing and care about them.
My school did a project for soldiers far from home and you wouldn't believe the letters that came back to the kids from the soldiers!
Send as many cards as you can! My daughter and I have been making and sending cards to soliders in my hubby's unit, and we don't know more than 95% of them! The response has been great!
This is a wonderful project and hope that MANY people choose to become involved. I like knowing that my hubby may be lucky enough to get a card from someone from this group!
__________________ Barb Coughlin
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape!
You do not need to send a stamp with the blank card but you do need to send it in a cello bag or a little sandwhich bag with an envelope. The reason we are sending the blank ones in plastic is so that the soldiers can look through them without damaging them. PLEASE INCLUDE AN ENVELOPE AND PUT IN A PLASTIC BAG IF IT IS A BLANK CARD. I appreciate all you are doing!
Keri Lee
When all you want to do is support our troops you can't make a card that they will not like! Anystamp set is GREAT! And use any colors...we wouldn't want them to think that SU! only comes in red white and blue!!!! Everything we do no matter how little has an effect!
Keri, I have a big box of cards I thought was ready but didn't realize we needed them in baggies. It'll probably be tomorrow before I get the box in themail to you!
I have been coordinating a project since last winter to send cards and/or bookmarks to the wounded at Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, the facility where the wounded from this conflict are taken. Whenever you hear that someone has been taken to Ramstein AFB in Germany this is the destination. The purpose is quite similar to the project listed here, except that this is for a more specific population. You can read about this project at http://www.artneko.com/troops.html. As an Army family our last duty station was at the European Command Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany where my husband was the Deputy Surgeon and their group was responsible for tracking the status of wounded and injured military in this theatre. If you are at a loss of what to say on any cards you wish to send to this project, not to worry. I have several groups lined up to pen personal messages on the cards, including the 911 call in operators here in Portland.
We really need more cards for these men and women who end up in a hospital removed from their units, coworkers as well as their families. They often arrive with only their clothing and the units there in Germany through volunteers with the Chaplain's Office are doing their best to see to their needs. Maybe it helps keep the volunteers minds off of their own military sponsor who may be deployed--but it would be nice for them to have some assistance as well as a show of appreciation for their efforts as I can imagine that both the staff and volunteers who work or assist at this facility must have their own fears for their loved ones increased as they see daily firsthand the terrible results of this mission.
This is such a wonderful idea! I hope you are getting lots of response. I have a question about cards sent to a soldier - should we put return addresses on them so they know who they came from or is a signature enough?
And to those mothers out there struggling with little ones, it does get better. Being a gradmother of 2 little girls and watching my daughter go through all this, it brings back all those memories. But it does get better - well - at least it changes and continues to change as each year passes - but it's all worth it!
Hi there Sharon, Whatever you are comfortable with. Some people put their return address some didn't...it is all up to you!!! Oh yes and the response has been wonderful!! It will be one month since we started tomorrow and already we have 778 cards!!!! That is pretty good...just keep them coming!!!
K
Location: I try to live in LaLa Land, but people keep interrupting me!
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How long?
Keri,
HI! Good JOB!! I have just one question...How much of a lead time do we need to allow for? I have some holloween themed cards is it too late to get them send off to you? Can you tell us how long it takes to get from you to the troops?
I hope I didn't miss this answer already somewhere in the thread
Thanks,
Kim
One more thing. A few years ago my DH was in Oman over the holidays and they do not celebrate Christmas and such...My Christmas card that year from him was a postcard with one off the local palaces on it! I don't know what the military's guideline is on sending "religious" (yes, Christmas , even in the most commercial sense, is considered taboo) items into the area. I figure that if they can't get something that they want there, well, then it's up to the family and friends to get it to them. And I think that they would need Christmas cards to send back home for families.
Before anyone says that Christmas is a religious holiday, I know...Jesus is the reason for MY season!!
If someone was worried about the religious connatations of Christmas vs. Hannakah vs. Kwanzaa etc. you could just make Happy Holidays cards or Seasons Greetings cards.
I was on active duty years ago and deployed on a ship to the Pacific Ocean. We received a packet from a grade school class and every piece of it was enjoyed my the members of my division. We posted the letters on a bulletin board and people would crowd around it during breaks. It was heartwarming to see these letters from school children. We loved seeing their handwriting, imagining their thoughts, and being appreciated by folks from home. Even though we didn't know any of them, most us were unmarried and childless, we still loved getting the mail - even if their teacher just made them do it!
This kind of stuff really does make a difference!
Good luck with your two year old. I now have a no-nap two year old and a 10 month old who needs a helmet as she crawls faster than her brain can handle. I need sleep.
I sent cards at Christmas through a Stamp Shop where the owner had a son flying helicopter border missions. We all sent cards. I addressed my as United States Military Hero. I told them we were thinking about them all the time and praying they would all come home safely. I thank them for doing this for their country and for us.
I think they really liked it. They sent pictures of themselves holding the cards up and smiling from ear to ear.
Believe me I felt awkward at first because I am really saying I don't want them to die. When I got the pictures it really enforced me to keep sending. They also like to get stuff they can't get there, like gum, and American junk food etc.
They get mixed readings on things they hear on how we feel about them being there and cards help booster their own feelings. They need our support reagardless of politics. I think I am preaching to the choir. :oops:
FOR THOSE WITH QUESTIONS IN REGARD TO SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS
