Monday, October 13, 2008

7th Annual Holiday Love Project for our Troops




7th Annual Holiday Love™ Project

Each year we send holiday cards to our troops for Christmas and Hanukah. This year’s project starts October 13th and ends December 1st to ensure that all cards and letters can be shipped to meet the holiday deadlines. Mail your holiday cards for our troops to us and we’ll ship them to our military in time for the holidays!

Get everyone involved! Here are some great ideas:




Adults

  • Place a drop box in your office or place of business and get everyone involved in bringing in cards.
  • Put a notice in your apartment’s newsletter about our project or put up this flyer.
  • Get your church, synagogue, or place or worship to add our project in their announcement letter this weekend.
  • Visit local retirement homes, VFWs, Moose Clubs and get the folks involved. This is a project that will make them feel really special and give them the opportunity to hear back from our troops too!
  • Buy holiday stationery and create your own personalized holiday letters.
  • Make a banner using a vinyl tablecloth (red, white or blue) and sharpies to create a thank you or support banner. Have friends, co-workers, family, church members, etc. sign it with their message.
  • Make a poster using poster board (red, white or blue) and colorful markers to create a thank you or support poster. Have friends, kids, classroom, co-workers, family, church members, etc. sign it with their message. It's easy to ship too, just stick it in a mailing tube to us!
  • 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 cards (like the kind you can get at any office supply store) are great to write a short note on or for a motivational quote. Colored ones are very festive and great if you just want to say "I support you" or "I'm proud of you". Dress them up with holiday stickers. Include your contact info on the back too with an address label or stamp.
  • Include phone cards for our service members to call home. The best cards to purchase are the AT&T phone cards as they can be used internationally as well as nationally.
  • Introduce a friend to eMailOurMilitary.com and have weekly card writing sessions for fun! Get creative, go ahead, use the glitter and the glue just like you used to when YOU were a kid.
  • We always need stamps. Ask your company to donate a roll of stamps to eMail Our Military; when they do, we'll give them some free publicity in our monthly newsletter as a thank you.
  • Even more ideas...

Corporate Sponsors

You can get your company involved. Get your community relations team to schedule a day for employees to get together to sign holiday cards then ship them to us. Our troops will be proud to see the companies back home that support them.

Donate holiday cards for our volunteers to sign. When you do, we'll add your company name to our list of sponsors, blog about your participation and promote it across our social networks. Great publicity for your company!

Donate your products or services. When you do, we'll add your company name to our list of sponsors, blog about your participation and promote it across our social networks. Great publicity for your company!

Promote the Holiday Love™ troop support project throughout your company using your website, blog and intranet. Your clients will be pleased to know that you support our troops.

Finally, consider contributing funds to the project.


Kids and Teens

Kids can make their own holiday cards for our troops. Children have the most creative ideas and this is a fun, family project you can enjoy together.

  • Try stamping or using scrap booking items to create fantastic unique cards home made by you.
  • Let the kids create their own holiday cards adorned with holiday stickers.
  • Get your children's classrooms/schools involved making drawings and cards. We have hundreds of schools participating each year and we want your school too! This is a great class project.
  • Make a banner using a vinyl tablecloth (red, white or blue) and sharpies to create a thank you or support banner. Have friends, co-workers, family, church members, etc. sign it with their message.
  • Make a poster (or a giant card) using poster board (red, white or blue) and colorful markers to create a thank you or support poster. Have friends, kids, classroom, co-workers, family, church members, etc. sign it with their message. It's easy to ship too, just stick it in a mailing tube to us!

What You'll Need To Know

We screen every piece of mail prior to shipping for safety and security reasons. Therefore, all cards and letters MUST BE left unsealed. Place your unsealed items into a larger shipping envelope with your return address on it. Envelopes or packages received without return addresses will be refused for safety reasons.

Please include eMailOurMilitary.com somewhere in or on your envelopes, cards, letter, notes and postcards or sign your name with "Proud eMailOurMilitary.com Member. This ensures our troops will be able to contact us should they need our support in the future.

Please DO NOT put stamps on your unsealed envelopes or postcards as we ship all correspondence to our troops in bulk. To help us with shipping costs, please include the stamps in a separate envelope aside from your letters or sponsor a shipment by becoming a Postage Patriot™.

Do not address individual cards, letters and notes to a specific branch. Address your correspondence to "Dear Hero", “Dear Service Member" or “Fellow American”. Keep in mind, they aren't all soldiers and they aren't all men. Remember, we ship in bulk.


DO's

  • Do include your return address on your package to us
  • Do place all your unsealed correspondence in a larger envelope or package
  • Do include your contact info if you wish to receive a reply
  • Do address your cards generally (like Dear Hero, Dear Service Member, Dear Fellow American)
  • Do try to include "eMail Our Military" on all your correspondence (it is a huge timesaver for us)
  • Do tell everyone you know and spread the word! Blog it, tweet it and keep sharing the news. The more the merrier.

DONT'S

  • Don't seal your correspondence
  • Don't put postage on your correspondence
  • Don't date your correspondence
  • Don't specify a branch (like Army, Navy, etc.)
  • Don't address your correspondence to a particular branch (like Dear soldier)

Holiday Love's Postage Patriots ™

For every $5 payment we receive, we'll ship one of our "Holiday Love™" packages stuffed with morale boosting holiday mail to our troops. Imagine the excitement our service members will feel as they receive packages of holiday mail sponsored by you. To participate, send a check, money order, use the pay pal button on the sidebar of our site or the chipin widget below and sponsor a package today!


Please send your holiday mail and or payments to:

eMail Our Military
"Holiday Love"
8004 NW 154 Street, Suite 344
Miami Lakes, FL 33016

Your packages must be received in our office by December 1st, 2008 to make it to our troops by Christmas. If you miss the deadline, ship it anyway and we’ll mail it out. You may sponsor shipments as a Postage Patriot ™ year round.


More Goodies/Resources

There are many more Holiday Love™ goodies and resources on the sidebar of our blog. Plus, you can use the Holiday Love category to view all of the posts tagged with Holiday Love™.



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32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love this! Am forwarding this link to all the folks I know - WE LOVE OUR TROOPS!

Unknown said...

great info! found the post on twitter. Thank you

Dayngr said...

Barchbo & Blog Queen,

Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!

BlackJack | eMail Our Military said...

Something tells me this year is going to be the best and biggest campaign yet.

eMOM said...

Help us spread the word and support more service members! Thanks!!

YatPundit said...

this is great stuff! I'll work up a post on this for kiddo's boy scout troop website. if they can send out stuff for the Catholic priests in town, they can do something for Military men and women :-)

Paisano said...

What a wonderful holiday gift idea! I remember being moved by a similar campaign last season by the local radio station which did it for Thanksgiving only. This is even better because it gives us a lot more time to prepare for it which means we can send a lot more to our boys and girls overseas! I'm going to spread the word too.

Pai

Dana Hileman said...

This is such a great program and makes an incredible difference in our Service Members lives. Thanks for keeping it going! I will be spreading the word for you!

Michelle said...

I would definitely urge anyone that could, to help out. You would be amazed how the little things can lift the spirits of the troops that are deployed. I spent a Christmas in Iraq, and every little word of encouragement helped me out.

Knittwit said...

The amount of lives touch by this incredible program will never be known, but the QUALITY of the effect is felt everyday. Friends and family here state-side feel great by being able to do something and by submitting names to this program, they know they've done even more to ensure that their loved-one gets the appreciation they deserve and the inspiration to keep going. There are no words to thank this program enough for not only helping the soldiers, but their loved-ones here too. Thank you SO MUCH!

Anonymous said...

Awesome idea!

Love it!! Can I just donate money towards this through paypal?

- Albert

Anonymous said...

I hope to help make this the best year ever. We LOVE our troops! Planning to promote it locally with some of the businesses that I am doing Holiday programs with. I love the tablecloth idea. I wonder if we can post it outside the elections for people to sign. What do you think?
I'm happy to help in any way that I can!

PhillyMac said...

Having had a sister and a brother-in-law and now my nephew's wife in active duty, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see this. I *know* that those on duty will love this! I'm all for any way we can show those out on the front lines that have volunteered to protect us and our freedoms that we love and support them. Where's the DONATE button!?

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! I will have to blog about this on my Myspace to get my friends involved.

Anonymous said...

Really proud of all your efforts - will do what I can. Best wishes to you.

Anonymous said...

Awesome program you have going on. Can't wait to see the results of this! You shall be getting a donation from me soon. :)

Anonymous said...

What great work you are doing in the world!!! Having had the honor of delivering the world's longest letter of love and support- all 18 miles of it- to our troops in Iraq, I know the importance of your project. http://snurl.com/4art3

Thank you again. We're honored and proud to partner with you to bring the spirit of the holidays to our loved ones far from home. Just let me know what we can do to help!

Hugs,

Gail
InspireMeToday.com

eMOM said...

Michelle,

Thanks for sharing that! Not every realizes what a morale boost mail from home is.

Albert & PhillyMac,

You can definately send money and use paypal. The button is on the sidebar of our blog.

Anonymous said...

What a great project! I'll be sending something along, either cash or cards for sure.

Look for a quick blog post as well.

Aruni said...

What a great idea! I'm sure the troops would love to receive holiday cards or any cards! I stumbled this post. :-)

eMOM said...

Todd,

Thanks so much! Cards would be great or even some creative letters done up nice on your computer. Throw in some holiday graphics and you've got a great holiday letter you can print and share. Print 10 copies and 10 service members get a letter from you.

eMOM said...

Aruni,

Thanks for the Stumble!

Anonymous said...

As a prior military service veteran myself, having served during Desert Shield/Storm, I remember receiving the Dear Any Soldier mail from kids around the nation.

This is another great idea and it will really inspire our men and women who have proudly volunteered to serve their country.

It seems to be that we can all give up buying that mocha latte one day, or renting that DVD, to be able to afford to let our troops know that we care - tell them in your letter that you wanted to take a moment from your life to devote to them and tell them how much you appreciate them for their efforts.

mousewords said...

What a great program! *Stumbled* also, and I'll pass it along!

jaredstill said...

AWESOME, awesome campaign!

Love your mission and the execution!

Let us know at www.soldierwish.com how we can help! So excited about the partnership!

V/r,

Jared L. Still

Mizz Crow said...

Blessings to this project, and I hope it is enormously successful. My stepfather served in WWII, my father in Korea, and my DDH in Vietnam. My niece has served in Iraq. I am pleased to be a part of this and hope many people find you from the links I've posted.

I think I am going to try the postcard thing with stickers or the holiday newsletter paper.

I've also signed up to do emails.

T. Michelle Theus said...

This is great! Good luck and God bless in all that you do :)

Dayngr said...

Spread the word and join in on the fun by helping us send holiday mail to our troops!

Anonymous said...

I just made a donation through paypal and love this project. I hope everyone gets involved this is so important, there are so many members of the military who get no phone calls, no mail, or emails.

eMOM said...

Please take a minute to spread the word about our project to get mail to the troops this holiday season by writing a blog post and linking back to this post. When you do, your link will appear below too!

Every little blit helps us support our troops.

Happy Holidays.

Anonymous said...

Just now saw the link -- will Ping it out, too. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwaanza, Happy Hannukah, Happy Thanksgiving!

Monica Kramer

Anonymous said...

I would just love to extend some help, This is my 1st x-mans of not having to work I have a 2 bedroom apt with washer and dryer. Wanting to make x-mas dinner and help out in anyway I can for the holidays and longer if and when I can.
I live in Mesa AZ if their are any Vets who are not allergic to cats or dogs, It is a small space but will do the best I can. Please let me know at yman1926@yahoo.com.