I was speaking (email actually) with one of my contacts and he had mentioned that I was the only one who continued to support them. He was going to let his application (for lack of a better word) expire. I looked him up and noticed there were 65 people who had requested his name. I know there are a lot who are only able to send a one time package. But out of that many folks and there is only one who continued to support.   I think if we get a name we should support them until their return.  Maybe I am the only one who feels this way, I hope not. 

I know I am on a rant and I ask you all to forgive me, but I had to vent. Thanks for listenting

Mags, thank you for your input on this matter.  I have a problem that I have been battling in my mind for so long.  My problem is that I find it difficult just supporting one or two contacts when there are so many young men and women in our military registered with"AS" and new one registering everyday.  I want to reach as many as I can not only with cards and letters but with packages as well.  I am allowed 20 names a month and thats 20 letters of encouragement not only to a contact but to their whole platoon.  I have been in "AS" for about 2 years now and the other day I decided to count my customs package receipts and I had close to 100.  I don't think thats bad for a senior person on a fixed income. I love what I'm doing and hope to continue while I am able.  I just feel that if you just focus on one or two contacts the others get left out.  I feel there are not that many of us out there doing this support work for our military.

My rant is:  When I tell people about our military support work I get this "Why do you want to do that for?", "The government takes care of all that stuff", "I just don't have the time to write letters and that stuff" or "Are you crazy or something" or "I can"t afford to" (they can't afford a .42 cent stamp?) .   These are the people that make my blood boil.

Thanks, Mags, and all you other supporters of "AS"..  I am glad I am on your team.

Graywolf   

 When I select a name from the list, they are stuck with me for the duration of their deployment. I currently have 76 troops in my Rolodex; many are going to be returning home by the end of the year. I write at the very least one letter a month to the troops we've adopted, and send care packages as budget allows. When I get a letter or an e-mail from one of our kids in the sandbox, I make sure to reply right away so they don't get "lost in the shuffle." Even if I never hear back from one of our contacts, I continue to write regularly until I get a letter returned marked "unable to deliver" or "addressee unknown." I think Graywolf and I have pretty much the same problem...but I can think of worse problems to have.

 Did the contact get 65 letters in the first place, and just not get followups?

I get so sad when I hear that so many people are requesting addies and not mailing anything. Urgh! But maybe---and this could be my pollyanna side---that soldier's family is all going there to get the address, and he's not "counting" them as AS supporters? Maybe? I sure hope so. That would be the only thing that would explain it in a nice way. :(

I am new to this but I have several friends in the Military. I love supporting our soldiers. My children have sent out postcards that Vault the energydrink had at a stand in Publix. They drew a picture, wrote their name and I dropped it in the mail. How hard was that? Not  hard at all. I find it hard to not want to write to them ALL! They do so much for us and don't even know us or will never met us. I applaud you for your post. I don't think that you should get a name and not support them. They want to know that we have not forgotten them or take for granted what they do for us.

I agree with Mags. I have a couple groups (80) who I adopted and will support until they come home. I, too, would like to support more, but I realize that thousands more people are supporting the troops than just those who write to this forum. One of my groups has over 30 requests, but I am the only one who supports them. I chalk that up to the one-time packages. By supporting a couple groups, I have a very close relationship to them and they know they can count on me.

Ok everyone, I apologize for going on a rant, . 

Let me see if I can answer a couple of questions for you, I got the numer 65 from his request page (Where to Send).  The soldier said (I quote) I think I am going to let my request expire from AnySoldier, we only have 125 days left anyway and besides you were the only one who has continued to support us.  When I read this it upset me to think that many people had requested his name and had not followed through.  In reality, not everyone supports our boys and girls the way I do. I get a name and stick with them through their deployment, while others try to spread the support (as was mentioned) to as many as possible.  I should not have taken this to heart.  We get so attached to these young men and women they are  extended family members.  And just like family, we sometimes get our feathers ruffled if we feel they have been wronged (at least through our eyes).

 So if I have offened anyone by my rant, Please forgive me.  I guess I really need to think before I speak.

Mags I am the same way. My problem is, I never hear from my contacts, even though I am with them through their deployment, or we are told not to send anything because they have not updated. I don't actually know how much support they are getting. I have been doing this for a couple of years or so with AS, and have recieved 3 letters back so I Know that three boxes got to 3 groups. After the initial one, I never heard from them again. Now, I do not expect any word from them, i send stuff anyway and cards or letters go into every box!  I have 3 groups right now, 2 groups of 4 and one group of 125 or so. The group of 125 contact sent me a nice letter that I got two or three days ago, asking me to write back and tell him whats going on here.  So, since I had all their Halloween packages waiting to go out, I wrote a huge letter back (poor boy!) to stick in his box. I was so excited to hear from him and know that the box got through, and then he asked me to write back! I go into this with the idea of supporting them until they come home, but I have only had one group that didn't drop off before that.  It is hard to read that they arn't getting support, they are ours, after all!  We adopted them and they are stuck with us!

So anyway, we can only do what we can do, and hope that we can give some cheer and love to those people we come into contact with.  We each have our own way of doing it, but it is getting done.

just my two cents!

Heidi

I too have picked a 3 groups and have stuck by them even though I can only afford to send a package every 10 days or so.  So each group gets a package once a month.  But they get letters more often.  Those are sent out at least once a week.

Of the contacts that I do have one has been dropped as the posts were not kept up.  Another has 5 that she signed up to receive mail for and the last has 100 males that are not very close to a PX.

I usually send a letter to each of the "5" so that each gets something when they do have mail call - is this incorrect?  Should I be sending just one for all to read?

With the larger group I will send letters and cards in the same box as the goodies.  I can't send all 100 a card or letter but do put in what I can.  I feel bad that I don't have the time to write to all 100 of these brave men but console myself with the thought that at least they have something showing up fairly regularly to show that I appreciate their efforts on my behalf.

babs

I'm not going to jump on this bandwagon.  While you all mean well, I have to say that it annoys the living daylights out of me that troop supporters, not just here but other places as well, seem to all want to tell each other how to do it.   And typically, it's their way is the best way.  Further, I think it's silly to make a big deal out of who got what and who might be overlooked because the truth is that you don't really know.  It's really self-defeating, in my opinion, kind of like watching 5 year olds play soccer and they all run after the ball and no one stays in position.

My opinion is do what you want, write when you want to whomever you want, send packages to whomever you choose, whenever you choose, one shot or long term support.  (all within the guidelines of the site, the post office, and the military, of course)   Stop trying to micro-manage everyone else!   Something is better than nothing.   Any of these things is better than driving around with a silly magnet on your car and doing nothing else.

 In my never so humble opinion,

cj/

I think a lot of people have different ideas of what expectations might be. It's not stated clearly that if you can't CONTINUE to support someone, don't sign up to start. Or that you need to send packages (or letters for that matter) weekly or monthly or whatever. People come to it bringing with them the ide of what they think would be supportive.

I felt kinda bad when I logged onto the Forum and realised a lot of people do send things out weekly, even if just letters. I send large boxes of cards, and include lots of letters in those...and I continue to send more when I can if they say they want more cards, but I can only get cards to them once every 6 to 8 weeks depending on what cards come in. I have a regular rotation of contacts, so the cards go to lots of units rather than drowning one group in cards they won't use before the season is over. The contacts I never hear from don't get another box if they don't reply in some way---even if its just updating their profile to say they're getting boxes. (They don't have to mention cards, I just want to know mail is getting through.) When we send a couple hundreds of cards, valued at a couple bucks each, I try to make sure they get to contacts who are really using them, because if they go into a black hole, I feel like it's not using the donated cards very wisely.

All that being said....I still do hope that everyone who requests addresses sends at least one letter or package! Sometimes I guage which contact to choose based on how much support it already looks like they've had. So if a lot request the addy but never send a thing, I might miss out on getting a goodie box out to someone in need of mail! :)

 

I don't think anyone was micro-managing or "telling" anyone HOW to send to troops. I believe the ones who posted here were only saying how THEY did it - and supporting one another that it's okay to do it however works best for them. There's no ONE way to support troops. I enjoy reading how others support the troops. These are only opinions, not gospel.  

 

Mags,  no need to apologize I don't think anyone got offended.  We appreciate you and respect your expression of feelings. Everyone needs to be vocal for thats how we support each other.  Thats why I want to thank you for your post.  You got everyone talking and expressing.  I log on to this forum several times a day just hoping to see a new posting especially one that will start a chain reaction effect.  This forum and everyone's post keeps me motivated. So rant all you want.  Sometimes it keeps me in line.

Proud to be an American

Good topic Magz. And good responses. I take "my" contacts personally too. I don't neccesarily agree with ya, but I do think (like greywolf) that topics that bring it out are good!

So, my half a cent worth.... every single bit every supporter does is good and enough. Everyone plays a role. The single letters, random envelopes, ongoing packages.... all come together. Not everyone will or should play the same role. I would never want a supporter to think a single letter was not good enough to send, cause many times I wished i was a talented writer who could express and say to these guys and gals what i think of them. I am not. I have the ability to send good care packages though, so the letter writer who can't afford to send the socks, I got that!

I do tend to send to the contacts who communicate with me more, simply because i get to know em and love em and it's easier when you have good commication to meet their needs. I also send to my remote contacts wayyyy more than my "big base" guys. The needs are simply greater usually. And I want to be able to prioritize my support my own way. We all do.

Keep in mind too, when someone requests an address in the beginning and sends a single time, there are also supporters who request later in the deployment when updates come out and send a single time too. The best thing a contact can do is update! We just do what's in our hearts and paychecks after that.

Your guys are lucky to have you! I've made a couple of really good friends with some of the guys I've supported over the whole deployment! That's such a reward to me :) But that hasn't been my role with every contact I've supported.

For what it's worth :) Shelly

If someone seems to need attention of one kind or another, I feel a need to help them.  If, down the line, they mention being overwhelmed with support, as some have said, we will wait a while to send anything else to them.  As far as the chaplains, CSMs, etc., that are mostly supplying their needy people, I don't feel as much obligation to send a regular package or mail to them if we find a small unit that seems to have a priority need more pressing.  In my mind, the contacts that are representing large numbers such as the ones mentioned are the ones that we send to when we have found a good deal on some of the things that they are asking for and have those to spare beyond our "regulars", or else at times that they express a serious lack of something. 

We have supplied packages to hundreds of contacts because over the years sometimes we begin sending to them 6-8 months into their tour, and may never send more than 2 boxes to them because we wanted to supply a particular need they had mentioned.

Even the contacts seem to have different ideas about their expectations from the supporters.  Some seem to want any kind of human contact, while others want us to be their personal shoppers for all their needs.  All of us think a little differently about how we support, and it is all good if we are true supporters.

Let's keep our communication and opinions up, but don't blast anyone personally so as to drive anyone away.  Mags, we understand your frustrations, but we will never be able to fix it all - such is war.

Gran