Red Cross collecting cards for troops, vets

Click Here to Recommend Story Related News

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- The Shenandoah County Chapter of the American Red Cross is asking residents to once again send cards to convey joy and appreciation to service members and veterans this holiday season.

The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes Inc. are partners in the Holiday Mail for Heroes program, which started a couple of years ago, according to a news release from the local Red Cross chapter.

Pitney Bowes is volunteering its screening, packaging and shipping services, while the Red Cross is sorting and boxing cards, the release says. Locally, the Red Cross is getting a hand from Shenandoah Memorial Hospital and Massanutten Military Academy.

While senders can stamp and mail the cards to Holiday Mail for Heroes, P.O. Box 5456, Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456, the local chapter also will accept them for stamping and addressing, Red Cross Executive Director Sharon Baroncelli said.

"We can certainly take them here," she said. "I know it was a big drop-off point last year."

More than 1,000 cards were left at the Shenandoah chapter in 2008, Baroncelli said.

The cards will be accepted between now and Dec. 7, according to the release.

"[After they're received in Maryland,] then they're going to be sending them back to [local Red Cross] chapters to distribute locally as well," Baroncelli said. "Not the same cards, but various cards would be coming back here, and the MMA cadets are going to help us distribute."

She said cadets will help get the cards to MMA alumni, and help deliver them to American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and nursing homes. Additionally, some will be sent to local veterans who are in Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Baroncelli said SMH collects cards from its employees as well.

"The men and women who serve our country in uniform deserve our thanks every single day, and sending just one card is all it takes to make a difference in the life of one of our nation's heroes," Pitney Bowes Government Solutions President Jon Love says in the release.

Those sending cards are asked to sign them; write "Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran" in the salutation; limit cards to 15 per person or 50 for a class or group; bundle groups of cards in one large envelope; and to not send care packages, money, or inserts, or use glitter.

For more information, visit Redcross.org/holidaymail.