Committing to military service is a noble and brave act albeit lonely and challenging. Often, families of individuals who choose to serve in the military have one thing on their minds: worry for the person’s overall safety. Emotions are heightened during the holidays, when families should be celebrating together and spending time with each other. As heartbreaking as it sounds, not everyone in the military service have families to speak with regularly and come home to, which is why one thoughtful woman decided to send greeting cards to American servicemen based across the globe.
Laura Landerman-Garber has been doing this for seventeen years. The idea came to her when she was celebrating Thanksgiving with their family. They all agreed it would be a great idea to write holiday greeting cards for those in the service. Laura and her family kept up the tradition for years. She even got friends and relatives involved.
“I wanted to be able to reach out and just maybe give a little bit of a bridge so that person who is far away feels a little tiny bit closer to home,” she explains in an interview with CNN. Who knew a simple, thoughtful gesture would spiral into a massive movement that continues to extend love, gratitude, and holiday cheer to military servicemen? Over the years, Laura’s project accumulated countless letters, an achievement from which stemmed the idea for Holiday Cards for Our Military. Impressively, the nonprofit organization has over 160,000 greeting cards ready for US troops around the world.
The content of the holiday cards vary, too. Some senders share their holiday traditions, some take the humorous approach and include drawings, while some dig a little deeper and write more serious, touching messages.
“One of the funniest is from a little girl who said, ‘Dear Mike, My name is Tori and my best friend’s name is Victoria. She loves you and I’m just telling you that,’” Laura laughingly shared. Apart from the adults and children across the US states who eagerly send their cards, Laura also receives mail from Canada ad Guam. Even presidential candidates took part in the project: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Mark Sanford, and Elizabeth Warren. “I just love the idea that whether you’re a presidential candidate – and those people have a lot of experience in our country – or you’re a three-year-old preschooler that you can send holiday cheer to someone that’s away from home and let them know you appreciate what they’re doing,” said Laura.
Receiving both funny and heartfelt cards inspires Laura to keep going and reaffirms her belief in the project that she started right in her basement. If you want to send in a greeting card of your own, you can find more details on their website. Laura and her team will be collecting cards until the 15th of December.
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