The 2022 Card Challenges actually started on December 26, 2021 when your cards started to arrive for the 2022 Challenges! By July, 20,0000 Holiday Cards were already packed up and waiting for the Winter Holiday Season!
In the meantime, the 2nd annual “Happy Valentines Day” Mini-Challenge yielded 5,000 cards of love for our Troops, Veterans, & Military Families. And soon after, 7,000 “Happy Spring” Cards arrived and were sent around the Globe. The feedback was wonderful as our Warriors love to hear from you ALL YEAR LONG!
When a call came in from a high ranking Military Officer asking if we might be able to send cards of support to displaced Ukrainian families and their families members still in the Ukraine defending their freedoms, we stepped up as did you and 1,500 beautiful messages of care were sent out. Both the children their families sent messages back, thanking the many Americans who remembered them in the messages of encouragement.
Hand delivering your #cards2connect, your messages of gratitude and support to the MIlitary Staff at the USA Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel was spectacular! Being with them thousands of miles away from home and seeing their joy at receiving your messages as well as the many boxes of donated Girl Scout Cookies was heartwarming to say the least. Our Warriors Serve to protect our freedoms all over the World; each of your cards makes a proud impact!
Always keeping our MIlitary Families in mind, some quilters in Maryland and New Jersey offered to make baby blankets for newborns born on MIlitary Bases, wanting them to know that although they just arrived so to speak, that in their own way, they Serve as well. Hence, #Blankets4BabiesOnBases was “born” and the new parents’ smiles upon seeing their infants wrapped in love said it all!
In September, we launched the “WHAT IS YOUR WHY” campaign, wanting to know WHY you join in and WHY you engage in community service. We challenged you to make a selfie video in three sentences or less to answer WHAT IS YOUR WHY and post it on our Facebook Page, HOLIDAY CARD CHALLENGE! Your answers inspired others to join in as well as clarified for yourself WHY you made the choice to send care and cheer to our Warriors and their families!
We heard your requests for more feedback from the card recipients and so we created a QR code that was sent with all your cards and messages! It allowed the Troops and their Families to scan, take a selfie holding your cards, and load it directly to our Facebook Page. It continues to be wonderful to see their smiling faces!
Whether your were joining in for the first time or the 19th time, we were excited to see your cards and letters and to send them to our Warriors, wherever they may be. If one of our goals is to decrease the airspace between the general public and those who Serve, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
228,000 Cards of Holiday Cheer were sent out and by the end of 2022, another 25,000 were received and tucked away for 2023!