I had such a fun experience this evening! I went to a cardmaking party about an hour from my home; the person hosting had emailed for info and I had asked if I could crash it (lol).

She asked me to give a shpeel about what we do, how we do it etc, and of COURSE I talked about AnySoldier.com as well as my own org, Cards for Heroes. All evening I was able to sit with the ladies and share stories with them, tell them what life is like for our deployed heroes. One had seen the NBC special on Korengal, and had been SO touched by it. I showed them my scrapbook full of photos and letters, and that nearly always brings people to tears.

One woman in particular was so excited - she will definitely be coming for a visit and wants very much to write letters. All the ladies said they'll be talking it up in their circles of influence---both our cards project and AS. Woohoo! Junkies in the making!

 Who have YOU lit a fire under lately? Let's hear stories!

Today while I was distributing poppies at the Veteran's Day celebration, I also handed out AS cards.  The Red Cross representative was promoting Holiday Mail for Heroes at the booth next to mine, so I explained about sending cards to the wounded warriors at the combat hospitals.  She was very excited about being able to pick her own soldier and was going to go home and research the website!  Lynne B.

I had to present a training for new Girl Scout leaders. I decided to hand out extra materials they might find useful, including anysoldier.com business cards... 46 leaders of girls who like to do service projects...

Thanks, Mom

 These are super endeavors Ladies! Way to go!! YAHHOOOOOOOOO  (pompoms flying for you

I haven't done much, but when I did get a poppy from a veteran I remembered the thank him for serving our country and I gave him an anysoldier card, told him I was made more aware about soldiers' efforts through this site.

 Not much but I figure every little bit counts, and I have some great ideas thanks to your posts

Thank you

Amy

 Awesome efforts, keep it up!

Last night I was at a cardmaking marathon at our local stamping store. It wasn't for benefit of our soldiers (but of course my cards were!), but do you think I can keep my mouth shut? lol. Everyone else was working on their Christmas cards (sets of all the same one); mine were all unique and totally different styles, etc----so people kept asking what I was up to, do I really send unique cards to my whole list each year. "These are for our nation's heroes...." and then just HAPPENED to have my Cards for Heroes scrapbook handy (lol), and of course got to break a few hearts. The best part was meeting someone who works for one of the major stamping ink companies, who wants to get her company to get involved somehow---she's a military mom, she made a cash donation, and said she'd be in touch. 

The store owner saw how much interest there still is in making cards for our troops, so will continue to host cardmaking parties for us! (I think she was "done" after the first two, but last night helped convince her to continue!)

Hi All,

I just got back from a weekend scrapbooking retreat. I took cards with me to get everyone to sign, and of course had to expalin what AS is and how it works. I gave out a bunch of cards and had several women tell me they were going to check out the website as soon as they got home. One of the ladies had her husband and grandson pick her up. Well, her husband is retired military, and member of Knights of Columbus; and grandson is in ROTC. They were both very excited about being able to support our troops, and are going to suggest group projects for their organizations. Also, one of the other ladies is a Girl Scout Leader who is going to have her troop make cards for me to send out next week. Not a bad weekend.

 More junkies in the making!!!! Yeah!

That is awesome! Be sure to let the card making folks know about our Card Swaps!! I think the next one is either valentines day or spring time or something like that.  We can always use people to make them bigger and better!!!

Heidi

 I was just at the PO with my dolly-full of FRBs. Today Carmen let me do the stampy thing on the customs forms to help her out---which really sped things up so the line didn't have to wait TOO long behind me and my 8 boxes!

As I turned to leave, one of the ladies in line behind me asked if they were all cookies or something in the boxes. "Nope, they're cards---3000 Christmas cards for our men and women to write home on."

"EVEN BETTER!" She started crying! :)

I of COURSE happened to have brochures for Cards for Heroes to pass on to her and the other ladies who were interested. (A plug for keeping lots of things to hand out in your purse!!)

I've gotten LOTS of email inquiries on the CFH site asking about other ways to help the troops too, and have been helping people pick out a contact, answering questions for them about shipping boxes, etc.  Seems like Christmas is drawing people out of the woodwork...so I'm also encouraging them to keep going all year long and not just make it a Christmas-only kind of support!