I have a silly idea.  How about if everyone (and get all your friends, and spread the love to other websites) sends 10 post cards to the desert.  Post cards are cheap and so is the stamp.  And there are like 2500 members on this site alone, and I hear you talking about other people on other websites like this one.  Lets get a postcard storm going in the desert.  Give our folks something different to look at and think about.  They get so much media BS, a lot of them need to know the rest of us are out here.  Think about sending 10 post cards per month per person, that is like a possible 1/4 million postcards from this site alone this year.  We could even keep track here as to which contact we send to, so we can spread the wealth around.  I know I sent out a lot of post cards in the care packages, but I was thinking more along the lines of just post cards.  Any thoughts?

How about a quick message:

 Hi, my name is (Lisa) from (Anchorage, Alaska)

jetakai_s@hotmail.com.  I got your contact's name from

www.anysoldier.com and I just wanted to let you know

that we are thinking about you and wishing you are staying

safe.  (possible short joke).

<<tygbssch>> Thank you, God bless, stay safe, come home.

Lisa

CONTACT	PC#	DATE	JUNKIE
Multi	5	3/18/08	Katheryn M
Cpt Arnulfo J. Martinez	18	3/20/08	Jetakai
Lt Richard L. Roe	18	3/20/08	Jetakai
Multi	22	3/25/08	CWP
Pv2 Jeffrey Adams, Multi	15	3/22/08	Cpt Dan’s Mom
Multi	5	3/25/08	Kathryn M
Multi	20	3/29/08	Anne Marie
SPC Andrew Hopkins	7	3/30/08	NYLadyBug
SPC Corey Chandler	5	3/30/08	NYLadyBug
CPL Kelly Aldrich	7	3/30/08	NYLadyBug
SSgt Michael Culotta	5	3/30/08	NYLadyBug
SFC Stephanie Givens	5	3/30/08	NYLadyBug
SSgt Patrick Huntly	6	3/30/08	NYLady Bug
Multi	10	4/7/08	Kathryn M
Melissa Martinez	12		Anne Marie

This sounds like a GREAT idea ... Hopefully you and I arent the only two that think it :)  I can and will start this storm this coming weekend!  How are we gonna keep count?

As long as it lets me keep editing my original post, I can keep a list going.  If it gets too big I can put it in Excel and just post the monthly totals.  I think it would be awesome to flood the soldiers with pictures (postcards) of home.  It doesn't even matter if you send the same post cards sometimes, becuase they will go to different areas.

That sounds like fun!!!

Reta

Extremely cool idea!  Love it!

--Marilyn

What a great idea!

Hello...you can count me in too.    Do you want us to just send to the contacts we already have......or start with new contacts?????    You're 1000% right.....they're pretty, inexpensive and they can decorate their housing unit with them.

love and peace..........anne marie

Totally up to you.  But I think I am going to pull new people.  I am already sending stuff to my "picks" and they all got postcards in their care packages.  I sent out an email last night asking all my joke list contacts (family and friends) to pass the word and send a card.  I think it would be wonderful to get postcards from every state heading to our men and women fighting for us.  I got all my stuff ready, so I just need to put them together and they go out in the mail tomorrow.

You guys are the best.  Thank you for not laughing at me.  I was worried I was too new to be making suggestions.

Lisa

 

This is soooo not a silly idea! I love it! What is cool about it, to me, is that people who normally would not take the time to come to anysoldier, will check it out, and some, undoubtedly, will get hooked!

So just to double check- we send you the contact name, the date we sent it, our junkie name, and how many postcards we sent???? And I thnnk the idea is to cover as mnay different contacts as possible, so we should check "the list" before sending, so that we can get them to new troops all of the time, right???

This is going to be so fun!

 

 

Exactly!  I would love to have a Storm of Postcards flying around the desert and leaving our people in no doubt that they are remembered and cared about!

And you can IM me here, send me an email or post it on this topic.

Also, for anyone who has trouble writing, the Avery disketet labels # 8196 are the perfect size to put on half a post card.  Where you have a contacts name and address you can type them out.

 If the post cuts me off, I may just put things like previous months totals, or something, and just keep it in excel so I have a running total.

Hugs to everyone

Lisa

 

After reading this yesterday, I sent out 5 Colorado postcards to my contacts!   I will try to get some more out over the weekend - I had the cards and stamps here already - so it just took a couple of minutes to fill them out. What a fun and economical idea.Since a couple of my contacts are from Ft Carson, I think they will enjoy the mountain pictures. I was not sure what to send this next month anyway as far as cards, since there are no holidays upcoming until Memorial Day.

When I go on vacation in a couple of months, I will try to pick up some postcards from there to send out. Next month I will send out some Denver Zoo cards that I bought few years back and have stashed - they have some pretty cute pictures on them, which is why I bought them in the first place.

hey Kathryn--sent you a PM!

We try and send blank postacrds in every carepackage.  That way our contacts can use them to  send home or to send to us

Anysoldier has some Great Postcards and they are actually pretty cheap.  check the Sales and donation section.

20 postcards for $3.75 plus shipping. The school got a few 100 this year

In my home state there is a company that sales Postcards to vendors  that in turn  sale them in Truckstops, gas  stations, souvenier places etc etc.

 Don't quote me but i think they sold the school  100 postcards for $8.00  or 8cents per postcard.  When compared to  4 / $1 at the Gas station this was a GREAT deaL  They where all the same design

We did not approach them this year for some reason...  

anyone else know of someone who sells Wholesale postcards?   It would be nice to be able to find some postcards other then Indiana...

 

This may be a little crazy, but ... if you have a digital picture you like enough to have a 50, 100 or more postcards made of it, there are a few places online that you could order them through.  I've never tried any of these places but VistaPrint.com, PSPrint.com, OvernightPrints.com all do short runs of postcards. 

There's also the option of printing your own on heavy stock at a local copy place and utilizing their papercutter.  I think a lot of commercial color copiers now have the ability to print from files.  "Homemade" post cards would end up being more expensive per card than what you were thinking of, but you would never run out of designs and it would definitely be unique.

The USPS is selling 'Women in the Military" postcards for 10 cents a piece at the local POs.  They are trying to sell them out before rates go up in May.  Not all offices have them though so it's hit or miss.

Another suggestion - the office supply stores have blank post cards you can print on your computer - don't actually know the cost though - come in packs of 100-200 - matte or glossy finish.  I think the staples brand was the cheapest.  Maybe 11.00 for 100?  Not sure so don't quote me.  You could use a photo of your own or a public domain image.  They are perforated I think and just tear apart.

Third option - heavy card stock (don't know if there are any postal restrictions on color for the address side ) - sold in craft stores - they always have sales - 40 % off and/or Michaels 40% off coupons in Sunday papers.  Get a size that lends itself to cutting postcard sizes and do the same thing you'd do with the staples ones.  The left overs you could use to make bookmarks and send with books.  There are paper cutters not so expensive at the craft stores also for cutting - may only cut one sheet at a time but if you set up an 'assembly' line it goes fast.

For any of the blank ones you can also try stamping them - turns out nice with patriotic, garden, wildlife, whatever your fancy might be.  Once you get the hang of the stamping that,s pretty easy too.  Materials - stamp, inkpad, stamp cleaner, paper towels - done.

Hope this helps a bit.

Ann