Holiday Mail for Heroes

The holidays are a time to get together with family, celebrate and relax. However as holidays draw near, it’s important to remember that many of our fellow citizens will not have the opportunity to spend time with family or relax for a long weekend because they are overseas serving in our armed forces. This can be a difficult time for many service members. Fortunately there is something we all can do to help.

The American Red Cross has teamed with Pitney Bowes to send holiday cards to men and women serving overseas during the holidays. The program, Holiday Mail for Heroes, saw a great deal of success in 2007 as evidenced by the roughly 600,000 cards that were sent to military bases and veterans hospitals all over the world. This year the Red Cross has set their goal at one million.

Participation in this program is very easy. In order to have your card delivered you simply need to put the proper amount of postage on the letter and mail it to the following address:

Holiday Mail for Heroes

P.O. Box 5456

Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Letters must be received by no latter than December 10, 2008. Moreover the Red Cross asks that people refrain from sending “care packages,” monetary gifts or using glitter or any other inserts in their cards. There is a list of recommended guidelines available at www.redcross.org/holidaymail as well as cards available to print out or messages from Red Cross celebrities such as Dr. Phil McGraw or Nancy O’Dell.

The holidays can be a particularly difficult time for many men and women serving in the military during the holidays. The Holiday Mail for Heroes program is a great way for all of us who have the opportunity to spend time with our families during the holidays to show personal support for the troops sacrificing so much for our liberty. With everyone’s help the Red Cross can meet its goal of sending cards to one-million service men and women. I hope you will all participate in such a worthy program.