the homefront blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHaOdHD128

A little “extra credit” game…we’ll be announcing the winners tomorrow - Sunday - but you can have all day today (Saturday) to “guess” what our card total was. There will be a little prize for the persons who guess:

1. number of CHALLENGE cards sent in during Sept and Oct
2. total number of ALL cards sent in during Sept and Oct

Hint: Be ready to say OOOOOOOH!

If you want to go back and visit our Thankful Thursday posts to see how many packets of cards came in and calculate your average for a guess, you can go to the right column on this blog under “Categories” and select “Thankful Thursdays” and it will pull those posts together!

REMEMBER: We can still accept your Christmas cards til Nov 14th; once each shipper’s last box goes out, we’ll save cards for next year. If you are going to “cut it close” you might consider sending winter cards (snowmen, happy winter, wintry birthday or love) so they can still be sent in coming weeks to be used in January and February. The “no glitter” rule still applies; anything that flakes off the card can pose a hazard to our heroes.

If you’d like to use your internet presence to help get the word out for Cards for Heroes, you are welcome to use these “Flairs"; if you would like to add them to your Facebook through the Pieces of Flair application, simply search for CFH and both should come up! (Note, when you use the Flair application, the buttons are linked to the website!)

There’s a brand new group for Cards for Heroes on Facebook as well; come join the group and meet some other cardmakers!

Edited to add: One of our cardmakers posted instructions for posting these as a clickable link on your blog, read her comment below. Thanks, Sonia!

Deadline: Oct 31 (You can still send holiday cards til Nov 14, but the challenge cutoff is the 31st.) We’ve gone past 3,000 - how many can we send to our heroes? (And a side note - in October ALONE we have received over 9,000 cards altogether! How awesome is that!) We’ll post the winners list on Sunday Nov 2, to give us time to count cards that arrive Friday and draw names.

Where to send cards: Any address on our shippers page

An entry for each of these kinds of cards:

1. Thanksgiving and fall (deadlines now passed, but entries sent in will count and cards will be saved for next year)
2. Christmas (religious or secular), Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, happy holidays, etc…child-focused or general.
3. Wintery-themed birthday, general (hello, thinking of you), love and miss you.
4. Happy New Years (please avoid alcohol references).
5. AnyHero thank-you cards and letters. (See footnote)

Christmas shipping costs:
It may easily cost us hundreds of dollars to get these cards sent out to our heroes over the next months. Please consider sponsoring a box of holiday joy! You can include a check made out to the shipper or to Cards for Heroes (our boxes cost $10.95), or cash, OR log into your Paypal account and send a gift to donate@cardsforheroes.org. If you’d like to include a message to the hero receiving your box, we’d be glad to do that for you, too. (Ask your friends and family to help out with sponsoring a few boxes too!)

Ten prizes: These are made up of wonderful donations by cardmakers and companies!Plus TWO GRAND PRIZES: For every box of 100 or more cards sent in, the cardmaker will be entered into our GRAND PRIZE DRAWING! This will be a flat rate box filled to the brim with wondrous goodies, and you’ll be delighted by all that’s inside!

Here’s the prize just for KIDS!

And we’ll have TWO grand prizes for those sending in 100+ cards! (Yes we added another grand prize!)

Footnotes and fine print:

About the envelopes:
We still have *some* envelopes left, but are nearly out — yes, we have used thousands of envelopes! We’re working on soliciting another envelope donation; if you have contacts, please email us and we’ll pursue them with you!

IMPORTANT: About glitter:
During holiday cardmaking season it’s tough to avoid glitter, but we ask that you save the glitter for your personal cards. (It is possible that glitter can make a hero visible to night-vision goggles if they get it on their uniforms.)

About AnyHero cards:
These can be holiday themed, general thank you, patriotic—but with written-out messages inside. Drawings from kids count as well. Consider sending one of your family cards—it could even be your photo card for the year if you’re done early! If you would like to sign it with your name and hometown that’s fine, or you can put your address if you feel comfortable. (No guarantees that anyone will write back.)

Deadline: Oct 31 (You can still send holiday cards til Nov 14, but the challenge cutoff is the 31st.) We’ve gone past 3,000 - how many can we send to our heroes?

Where to send cards: Any address on our shippers page

An entry for each of these kinds of cards:

1. Thanksgiving and fall (deadlines now passed, but entries sent in will count and cards will be saved for next year)
2. Christmas (religious or secular), Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, happy holidays, etc…child-focused or general.
3. Wintery-themed birthday, general (hello, thinking of you), love and miss you.
4. Happy New Years (please avoid alcohol references).
5. AnyHero thank-you cards and letters. (See footnote)

Christmas shipping costs:
It may easily cost us hundreds of dollars to get these cards sent out to our heroes over the next months. Please consider sponsoring a box of holiday joy! You can include a check made out to the shipper or to Cards for Heroes (our boxes cost $10.95), or cash, OR log into your Paypal account and send a gift to donate@cardsforheroes.org. If you’d like to include a message to the hero receiving your box, we’d be glad to do that for you, too. (Ask your friends and family to help out with sponsoring a few boxes too!)

Ten prizes: These are made up of wonderful donations by cardmakers and companies!Plus a GRAND PRIZE: For every box of 100 or more cards sent in, the cardmaker will be entered into our GRAND PRIZE DRAWING! This will be a flat rate box filled to the brim with wondrous goodies, and you’ll be delighted by all that’s inside!

Here’s the prize just for KIDS!

And we’ll have a grand prize for those sending in 100+ cards!

Footnotes and fine print:

About the envelopes:
The envelopes were donated, but the shipping of those envelopes to each of our shippers was paid out of pocket. (over $120) If you’d like to include a small donation to contribute to the costs, please include a few cents per envelope you might have sent in and note that’s what it’s for. Any extra donations received beyond the cost of that shipping will be used for mailing all these Christmas cards to our heroes.

About AnyHero cards:
These can be thanksgiving themed, general thank you, patriotic, or holiday—but with written-out messages inside. Drawings from kids count as well. Consider sending one of your family cards—it could even be your photo card for the year if you’re done early! If you would like to sign it with your name and hometown that’s fine, or you can put your address if you feel comfortable. (No guarantees that anyone will write back.)