Sending the Troops Holiday Cards and Gifts

The holidays can be one of the most difficult times of the years for military personnel serving away from home. The simplest gesture?a call, a card or a gift can make a huge difference in their morale.

There are countless organizations that help facilitate the gift giving process, and we?ve put together this guide to help you select a group to help you send something to the troops this holiday season.

Red Cross

Holiday Mail for Heroes Program

The Red Cross will accept holiday greetings through Friday, Dec. 7 at the following address:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

The organization offers the following tips to help your letter pass through the screening process:

• Ensure that all cards are signed.
• Use generic salutations such as ?Dear Service Member.? Cards addressed to specific individuals cannot be delivered through this program.
• Only cards are being accepted. Do not send or include letters.
• Do not include email or home addresses on the cards: the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships.
• Do not include inserts of any kind, including photos: these items will be removed during the reviewing process.
• Please refrain from choosing cards with glitter or using loose glitter as it can aggravate health issues of ill and injured warriors.
• If you are mailing a large quantity of cards, please bundle them and place them in large mailing envelopes or flat rate postal shipping boxes. Each card does not need its own envelope, as envelopes will be removed from all cards before distribution.

Shutterfly

The popular photo card website is offering to send up to 1.5 million cards to the troops. Visit their Facebook page where you can customize a card with images, photos and text. Shutterfly will then send them to the troops.

Sears

In a bit of twist, Sears? ?Help a Hero? campaign seeks to assist deployed soldier in sending gifts to their families at home. Their website features a wish list of practical items such as clothes, toys and decorations.

Fisher House

This organization collects donations of airline frequent flyer miles to help injured military personnel travel home from a medical center or enable their family members to visit them. Many major airlines are participating in this program visit their website for more details.

Operation Gratitude

With a number of different programs, Operation Gratitude works year-round to send more than 100,000 care packages filled with entertainment, snacks, and more to troops overseas. Currently, they cite the following items as being ?in urgent need?:

• Personal letters
• Hand-made scarves and para-cord bracelets
• Beanie babies/Webkinz/Trolls
• Financial donations to help defray the production and shipping costs.

Give2TheTroops.org

For 2012, this organization?s theme is ?Seasonal Sights, Sounds and Sweets.? They are looking for donations of DVDs, photos, signed banners, handmade paper garlands with messages, signed holiday cards, felt stockings, ornaments, artificial trees and wreaths, lights, fleece blankets, small menorahs,?dreidels and any small gifts or stocking stuffers.

Source: http://chevychase.patch.com/articles/sending-the-troops-holiday-cards-and-gifts

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