Salute the Troops - Operation Write Home

OPERATION WRITE HOME is a really special website (and organization),  It is like a homemade Hallmark shop for deployed troops.  This group encourages crafters to make cards, ship them to OWH, who organizes and packs and ships them to deployed troops.  These cards are given out to the troops for them to send back home...since they aren't usually in a position to run down to the Hallmark store and pick up a birthday card for the kids, an anniversary card for the spouse, a Mother's Day card for Mom. It is the coolest idea I have seen in a long time.  And it has been very successful. 

I encourage you to go to the website. Take some time and click on each page, read it thoroughly so you understand the rules and purposes.  They have weekly challenges to encourage crafters to make a stack of cards (or boxes of cards) and send them in.  This is a project not for the kids.  There is another project for the kids.  These cards need to be top-notch, well crafted cards that won't need to be doctored, altered, or touched up when they get to the shipper, because they have thousands of cards to go through.

There is another project for those who don't think they are up to the challenge of making the greeting cards, and for the kids.  This project is called the AnyHero mail project.  Read about it on the website.  There are coloring pages provided, for the younger set, that can be downloaded, printed and decorated by the children. (NO GLITTER)  Older kids, who might want to make their own cards, can make cards for the troops (not for the troops to send back home).  Keep in mind, though, there are guidelines, which involve safety issues for the troops, which must be followed.

Our homeschool co-op did the AnyHero mail project last year.  It was a lot of fun.  If your family would like to participate with other families, we could  make a challenge out of it.  See which family (or child) can make the most AnyHero letters or cards. 

If any of you crafters are up to the challenge of card-making, I invite you to join me this week in making kids' cards for the troops---cards the soldiers can send back home to their children for birthdays, missing you, congrats on job well done, or even blank inside. 

If you will notice on the website, there are specific requirements for packaging for shipping to the shippers, to save time when they are sorting and re-packing thousands of cards. So, please keep those in mind, if you want to participate.

So....who is up for the challenge?  Who wants to commit to make at least 5 cards for kids, provide the envelopes and get them to me.  If you will make the cards and send them to me, I will stamp the back of them and pack them for the shippers!  And as the website says, the very best fillers, when packing the cards for shipping.....AnyHero mail. So, encourage the kiddies to make our fillers for us!

Who's in?