CNN just had a story about a wounded Soldier, Ty Ziegel, and included the address to send holiday cards to other wounded Soldiers this year.

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Ctr.
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

I know the wonderful people here at anysoldier will send hugs to these heroes.<3

It appears that Kyra Phillips may have been mistaken when reporting this afternoon and Walter Reed will not accept cards for wounded soldiers. I have sent them an e-mail and will post if I get a response. Not only has my "bubble" been popped, but my heart has been too. Cheryl

Thank you, I have sent this information to everyone I  can think of so hopefully we can all get a lot of cards and love sent their way.

Iggy, thanks for posting this!

I hate to pop your balloon....but Walter Reed will not distribute cards, packages or any mail if it doesn't have a specific name on it.   It can't be addressed to A Recovering American Soldier.  It's on their own website, which I checked out after getting a bunch of emails with that request.

 

 

I'll email CNN, since it was reported by them today. I know they weren't accepting any last year, but was thinking (and hoping after seeing it on the msm) that they had changed their policy.

I'll post if I get a response back. 

Earlier this year I obtained addresses of two people who are affiliated with Wounded Warrior - they volunteered to receive cards and letters for soldiers at three hospitals:

Bethesda and Walter Reed Hospital

R. J. Meade

ATTN:  Any Wounded Warrior

7381 Hallcrest Dr.

McLean, VA  22102

Brooke Army Medical Center

Mr. Juian Arredondo

ATTN:  Any Wounded Warrior

9026 Barkwood

Universal City, TX  78148

They will be happy to receive cards and letters or anything else and take them to the hospitals to either hand them out themselves or give them to the nurses on each unit to hand them out to those who are most in need.

Thanks,

Mary

HI Mary

Thank you for that info....I'll pass it on to my friends.

Bette

Mary, thank you so much for the info.  I got a call from a teacher friend at another school who had sweet letters from her students for wounded soldiers.  She was wanting suggestions on small gifts to send along and I was able to give her these addresses, as she only had the info without the contacts' names.  Hurray for the forum!  What a resource it is!

I got about 10 of those emails too!  I already realized it couldnt be done so I just sent out another email explaining it so I hope they see that before thinking of possibly sending a card or letter.
A Vet that I know pretty well suggested to me that people look into the local VA clinics and even nursing homes to send cards to during the holidays because sadly a lot of the older guys get nothing, especially the ones in the nursing homes.  So you might want to talk with your local nursing homes and VA clinics to see what you could do there as well.

Thanks timjim and Mary for the alternative suggestions. I never heard back from CNN, but I do hope they did an on air retraction.

After watching the story about Ty Ziegel, I did the first thing that came to mind - run here to find some love and support for the wounded. Here is the story about Ty: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1294008.ece

and a photo of him and his bride, Renee:

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?Itemid=146&bandwidth=high&id=875&option=com_photogallery&task=view

The CNN on air interview included a surprise satellite hookup to his brother, who also serves and is in Iraq.

I found this today.........

http://www.snopes.com/politics/christmas/soldiercards.asp

 It says Walter Reed IS NOT accepting cards for soldiers.....I am really confused.

Hi All,

1.  www.hhv.org is the web site of a group that runs on donations and provides craft kits to wounded Veterans in hospitals and Veterans homes across the country and also abroad.  Your donation goes to provideing these kits.  A postcard is included with each kit so the recipient can send a Thank you and check a box if they would like a penpal.

This group does great woek and recently made a large donation to the Chaplain's Closet at Landstuhl.  Not the same as sending a greeting card but from what I've heard the craft kits go   over really well.  Many of them are also used in the rehab programs for our wounded warriors.

2.  The VA site also gives a list of all the VA homes and hospitals across the country if you are looking for the ones in your area as well as the public's contact ( at least the one's in my area) if you want to know who to contact.  And lf course I can't remember the URL for the VA site as I'm typing this post but you can  GoodSearch  it!!

Hope this is some help.

Ann

I was just searching for this and am hopeful that this is going to work. ( My understanding is that these folks have volunteered to receive the mail and bring to the hospital for distribution as opposed to the hospital receiving mail addressed to "wounded warrior:).

Thank you so much for updating this. Happy Thanksgiving EVERYONE!!

Sheila