Arizona Post 117, led by its Auxiliary unit, hopes to send out 22,000 cards to deployed servicemembers this holiday season.
For eight years, Pat Tillman American Legion Auxiliary Unit 117 in Phoenix, Ariz., has sent out thousands of Christmas cards each year to servicemembers throughout the world. Last year’s effort sent around 20,000 cards; the goal this year is 22,000.
The effort began with cards being signed starting in July, with each card including season’s greetings, and words of thanks and encouragement. The effort, which started under Past Unit President Fran Anderson, has continued to grow each year.
“Every year, it’s just a goal of ours,” Unit 117 President Chris Rodriguez said. “We know it impacts our soldiers overseas and (stateside), because they can’t be with their families, wherever they’re stationed. So, we know it actually touches them, knowing that there’s strangers out there who care for them and are thinking of them – especially during the holidays.”
Rodriguez said though it’s a Unit 117 project, all of the post’s other American Legion Family entities assist with the effort. And that assistance has spread beyond Post 117’s Legion Family.
“We also have a lot of other (Auxiliary) units involved, especially in District 12 where we are,” Rodriguez said. “I threw out a challenge a couple of years ago, and every year the challenge keeps happening. They’ll see me and they’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ve got boxes of cards for you.’”
The community also is involved – especially local youth. “The Cub Scout troops, I love having them come. We also have schools that do it in our community,” Rodriguez said. “I guarantee you that these kids have someone in their family that was military or is currently military. So they know what that means. They know that there’s somebody out there in the Army, Navy, Marines, whatever it may be.
“Keeping that in their mindset, letting them know that the military is it out there … showing their support for the military at that young age. You never know: In 10 or so years, that kid might decide to join the military and receive a card and be like, ‘I remember this from back in the day.’”
Rodriguez said the highlight each year is when they hear back from one of the recipients.
“I think what really grew a passion for continuing to do this is and why we typically go up a thousand (cards) each year is when we get responses,” she said. “We might not get a ton of responses back … possibly four or five. But once we get responses and know that it actually reached somebody, and we can put a face and name with one of the cards that was sent out – what it meant to them receiving it – that pushes us. We know they’re getting it and that it’s impacting them. They feel the love. I think that’s why we try to do it every year.”
Watch ABC 15’s video coverage of the project here.
- Troops