WATKINSVILLE, GA – The Oconee County Public Library is holding a drive for the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign, which is held by the Red Cross.

For those soldiers over seas who don’t get to see their families, it can mean the world.

And it can be fun on our end, too.

“One little boy said he wanted to write to the ‘Army Man,'” said Jessie Johnson, Children’s Specialist at the Oconee Library.

So far she says she’s only collected between 50 and 100 cards, and she’ll be collecting them until the end of the month.

They don’t have to come from kids, either.

“I’ve had adults who don’t even have kids…come up and ask ‘can I do this too?’,” said Johnson.

The Bogart Library is participating as well, but if you can’t make it to either one of those places, you can still help out from home.

All you have to do is make a card and mail it to the following address (from the Red Cross website):

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Just be sure that your card meets the following guidelines:
1) Must be signed.
2) Use generic salutations (i.e. “Dear Service Member”); cards addressed to a specific person will not be mailed.
3) No letters, only cards. (This doesn’t mean you can’t write a little note in the card, though!)
4) Don’t include email or personal addresses in the card.
5) No inserts, including photos.
6) Don’t use glitter. It can cause problems for ill or injured soldiers.
7) If you’re mailing a bundle of cards, don’t put them in an individual envelope. Use one large envelope or flat-rate shipping box.

The deadline to send them in is December 6.