It's so easy to do...

     I’ve done some research on sending care packages and/or letters to service men and women overseas.I wanted to support them in some way that was within my budget, which is not high, but still be something that would be useful or appreciated.

     I started with Operation Paperback. It has sent books to military personnel in many countries. They’ve been doing this since 1999. I sort of missed the “paperback” part of their name. yes, really. I thought they’d take any kind of book. They will accept other kinds of reading materials but they’re considered “special shipments.” So, I kept looking, I don’t even own ONE paperback book (as far as I know).

     Next, I found Keystone Soldiers. They have a much broader focus. They send care packages, letters and can set up pen pals. Their login system is REALLY touchy. If you make 2 mistakes, they lock out your ability to login altogether for some unspecified amount of time, which I found very annoying. I ended up creating a new account rather than sit on the sidelines. I haven’t received a password from them yet, which is disappointing because I’ve already got 6 pen pal envelopes ready to go. The way they set up pen pals is to send your pen pal letter to any service person. Each letter you send goes to a different soldier. So, I put the same letter in each envelope. I also put stuff like stickers, a lens cleaning cloth, a bunch of pictures of my tattoos, a bumper sticker about a goat and other random stuff that fits into an envelope and doesn’t go over 2 ounces (66¢ total postage). I hope they send me a password so I can send these letters to them. After that, I’m moving on to…

AnySoldier.com

     This is the organization I’ve decided to work with. They’ve been in business (so to speak) for a very long time and I was able to find them referenced by other organizations, some of which monitor the legitimacy of outfits designed to support military personnel overseas. There are a lot of websites for sending care packages or letters to active military personnel on the Internet. After a while, it got a little overwhelming to compare one site to another make sure they were a legitimate organization. After all my research I have decided to work with Any Soldier.

     I’m only going to send letters for now. Sending a package is more complicated but I may do that in the future. You can only get two addresses per day from anysoldier.com. They have rules to help keep the packages and letters coming in from legitimate sources and not from a irrefutable scammers and other miscreants.

     If you want to write a letter to someone who is probably not getting any mail or much mail, you can send your letter to me and I will send it to one of the soldiers listed on the Any Soldier website. I hope you'll consider doing this. If you’re not sure what to say in a letter, just write as though you were writing to a friend. You can write about your job, family, and/or interests. Essentially, you can write about anything that you’re comfortable sharing. According to Any Soldiers, letters are the number one request made by the soldiers that contact them to participate in their programs. Also, they report that the soldiers like to hear anything about life "back home." When you write (see how I'm planting the seed of your cooperation) it's OK to say thank you for your service or other thoughts to that effect. But it's better not to write about their difficulties or to comment on any political agenda. In other words, you're just writing to let them know that people back home care about them.

     Any Soldiers is not associated with any religious or political organizations.  Their nondiscrimination policy is excellent and encompasses pretty much everything I would hope to find listed. My intention is to write several letters per week. It’s pretty easy to write a letter, and many of the soldiers and other military personnel don’t really have anybody “back at home” to write to them.

     One of the websites I visited had made a comment that I’ll paraphrase here:

“No one should have to walk away from mail call empty-handed.”

     I couldn’t agree more.