Send a touch of home to the real heroes of America and their families! Holiday Mail for Heroes is back again!
For the third year in a row, the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes are working together to collect, sort and distribute holiday cards to service members, veterans and their families.
How Holiday Mail works
We have established an extensive process to ensure all cards sent to our service members are safe and arrive in time for the holidays. Holiday cards will be collected through a unique P.O. Box address from Monday, November 2 through Monday, December 7*.
Cards from across the US must be sent to this address:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456
Every card received will be screened for hazardous materials by Pitney Bowes and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers working around the country.
If you would like to begin working on your cards now, here are some quick guidelines to ensure your cards makes to a hero as quickly as possible:
Do…
- Ensure that all cards are signed.
- Make cards more meaningful to a wide variety of recipients by using “Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran” rather than any more specific language.
- Send holiday-neutral cards rather than religious-themed cards. Note: Cards addressed to specific individuals cannot be delivered through this program.
- Limit the number of cards to 15 from any one person or 50 from any one school class, business or group. If you are mailing a large quantity, please bundle the cards and place them in large mailing envelopes. Each card does not need its own envelope, as envelopes will be removed from all cards before distribution.
Do not…
- Send letters. Only cards are being accepted.
- Include email or home addresses on the cards, as the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships.
- Include cards with excessive amounts of glitter. Because cards may be received by wounded service members and veterans in hospitals, large quantities of glitter could aggravate existing health problems.
- Include inserts of any kind, including photos, as these items will be removed during the reviewing process.
Click HERE to see how well we did last year and read a thank you from the Red Cross and Pitney Bowes.
If anyone recalls, I hounded you and hounded you last year to get those cards in the mail. I don’t expect this year to be any different. Tweet it, Facebook it, Myspace it, get your children’s class rooms or entire school involved. I am offering to sponsor my grandsons class room. It’s not just for kids. I will be sending my maximum limit of cards as well. You can get 15 cards for $1 at the Dollar Store. What can YOU do to make this happen?
Updated Nov 10: Here is a sample of one of the adorable cards made by my grandson’s 1st grade class. On the inside it says. “Thanks for keeping me safe” or something close to that hand written by a 1st grader. Now what’s your excuse for procrastinating!
Ms Sparky
Thanks for this info. Count me in for my 15.
I have been looking all over for this video from last year. Thanks.
Thanks for posting
Thanks for being one of the first to get this info out there.
Dear Ms Sparky
I hope you are doing well. I am working with Pitney Bowes and wanted to reach out to you regarding our 2009 “Holiday Mail for Heroes” campaign with the Red Cross. We certainly appreciated your post last year about the project, and want to thank you again for helping us touch so many service members, family members and veterans in 2008.
This year, the goal of the campaign remains the same: to recruit Americans to send holiday cards with their messages of thanks and cheer to service members, veterans and their families. It is our hope once again that, through this campaign, American service men and women in the U.S. and around the world will receive a much needed touch of home during this holiday season.
This year, information about the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign can be found at http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail. The site includes information about what types of cards can be sent, how cards should be addressed, and also provides further information regarding how you can get involved. I wanted to see if you would be willing to spread the word about the campaign again this year through your blog, helping us send a touch of home to our U.S. Armed Forces, veterans and their families when they need it most.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions. I hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards,
Frank McDade
Ms Sparky’s Response:
I’m in!! You can count on me to help promote this.
I will be sending out the personal limit again this year and have forwarded the info to my contact list. I will also be going around to some of businesses in my town that have bulletin boards and will be posting copies of the address and instructions . . .
Everyone can send at least one card . . . support our troops please especially after the Ft Hood shooting . . these guys/gals need to know that we support them!!!!
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Thanks Krash!! And thanks for passing on the info!
Congrats to Mrs Green’s 1st Grade class for getting all those beautiful cards done and ready to be enjoyed by our soldiers, veterans and their families.
I updated this post with a photo of one of the cards. They are so adorable and hand written.
Way to go!!
Hello, I found this after I made an event of this on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=201520807144&index=1 , I’ve read what you did last year and I wanted to say kudos
Thanks for making this a Facebook event. The more people we can get involved the better!
no problem. you actually inspired me to make a blog on it too. lol. please, feel free to invite as many as you can. I want to see a big number there, though I know more people are going to do it than respond to my little facebook account, I get psyched every time that number goes up! I am so pumped!
(by the way: you rock, I’ve read a few of your things on here! way to be awesome! *thumbs up & high fives!*)
Thanks!