It all began at a luncheon of retired ladies who used to work together in Annapolis, MD. One of our ladies always did a great deal of charity work for our military. So, we asked her, now that you are retired, are you still doing work for our soldiers? Her answer was a resounding YES! We offered to help. She told us what was needed in care packages and also that they loved to receive cards. My name is Pat Brodsky and I have been a card maker for many years so I jumped on the chance to make cards for our military. We decided as a group to make cards they could send back to their loved ones and friends since they couldn’t buy cards on the bases where they were deployed.
And so, it began……………
Let me say first and foremost, my faith in God enters all aspects of my life and I strongly believe he is directly responsible for Making Cards for Our Troops. I think you will see why I believe this as our story continues.
Following that luncheon in 2016, a few crafty friends got together and made 300 Valentine cards for our service men and women. We said, well that was fun and thought that was that, but God had another plan. With a little nudge, we decided to make Christmas cards that year. We gathered at the Elks Lodge in Edgewater, MD. for our first event. We made 550 cards. By then, it was pretty obvious that we were going to continue to make cards for our soldiers. So, we figured out how we could increase this number and had smaller groups begin to make cards – sometimes with our help and sometimes on their own. At that time our group was six enthusiastic volunteers who were fully geared up to continue making cards year round. Our numbers increased as follows:
In 2017, we sent 2,010 cards overseas;
In 2018, we sent 5,324 cards overseas;
In 2019 we sent 6,986 cards overseas and participated in 20 small events throughout that year. I discovered an organization in California, Operation Gratitude, that was also sending care packages to our troops and after reaching out to them, we decided to work together. They agreed to take the cards we send them and sort them into individual care packages for the troops.
We were hearing that the response from the troops to our cards was wonderful and decided we needed to get more volunteers and more card makers involved. We contacted Guideposts Magazine and pitched our story for their “Someone Cares” column. They loved it! Our story appeared in the June/July 2020 issue of Guideposts Magazine, in the “Someone Cares” column. We had wanted the article to appear in 2019, but it didn’t work out that way. Guideposts did, however, run our story in 2020 in the middle of the Covid pandemic where our email was listed for more information. Since many folks were stuck at home during that time, it meant card makers were happy for something creative and worthwhile to do. Seemed to me this was just one more ‘coincidence’ that God was facilitating and as a result, our email lit up like a Christmas tree! We were off and running.
We started receiving cards from card makers all across the United States who were excited to support our efforts. 2020 was a banner year for sure considering we sent 76,012 cards. We were more convinced than ever that this was God’s plan for us.
Up until that time, we did not have to worry about the cost of shipping the packages. The American Legion in Mayo, MD, had graciously taken care of all of our shipping costs. However, as those costs had grown so significantly, we needed to reach out elsewhere for help with those costs. A fundraiser at a local restaurant and social media helped us raise enough to send 69,820 cards to our troops in 2021.
In 2022, we sent 61,646 cards overseas.
We continue to need funds to send our cards to our military. If you can help in any way, please contact us at cardsfortroops2398@gmail.com. We will sincerely appreciate your support. We are a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Annapolis, MD and all of the money we receive goes to support our program. Donations are tax deductible and no one on our team of volunteers is paid.
We are anxious to see what God has in store for us as we continue our mission to make and send handmade cards to our troops so they have cards to send to family and friends. We know they appreciate the cards as a way for them to stay in touch with their loved ones and we believe this is just one small way to show our appreciation for their sacrifice for all of us.
Stay tuned……………
Making Cards For Our Troops 