Holiday Mail For Heroes

A few days ago, I saw on Facebook a post about sending cards to "A Recovering American Soldier" care of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. I thought I would make up a few fiber postcards over the weekend, and wanted to check the address. A quick search came up with a post from Snopes.com that I want to pass along. In short:

Christmas cards addressed to "A Recovering American Soldier" or "Any Wounded Soldier" care of Walter Reed will not reach their intended recipient.

However:

Christmas cards sent to soldiers through the Red Cross-sponsored Holiday Mail For Heroes program will reach their intended recipient.

You'll find the Red Cross guidelines for this program here. There's more information here. The correct mailing address is:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

Because of the screening process, Holiday Mail for Heroes must be postmarked by Friday, December 10. That doesn't leave much time, so here's how I'm cutting corners: I did a quick design to print on inkjet fabric. I'll fuse it to stiffener and some wintery-looking fabric for the flip side, sign it, and have it ready to go out on Friday.

You are welcome to use this JPG image if it helps you. To fill out the 8-1/2" x 11" page, I included some stocking border elements you might use on the flip side. Click on the image to open it at full size. Right-click the image to save it to your computer. Before you print to inkjet fabric, resize if necessary so the black boxes do not exceed 6" x 4-1/4", and are no smaller than 5" x 3-1/2". Those are the Post Office's maximum and minimum dimensions. Affix extra postage and ask for hand-canceling.

The stocking borders, by the way, are from a photograph of a plastic canvas stocking my late mother-in-law stitched shortly after Bill and I were married. If she were still with us, she'd have an assembly line set up and be cranking out holiday mail for heroes at a pace that would make your head spin!