LONGVIEW — Once a week, the Richard A. Holloway Memorial American Legion Auxiliary Unit 131 in Longview meets to work on a special project.
"Our mission is to provide comfort to the troops by encouraging them to keep in communication with their families,” says Linda O’Hart, co-founder of “Texas Cards for Troops”.
It’s been seven years since O’Hart and ALA Unit 131 President, Linda Langley founded the nonprofit, “Texas Cards for Troops”. Since then, the group has met at the First Lutheran Church in Longview every Thursday to create thousands of handmade greeting cards to send to deployed troops of every military branch.
“What we do is we make cards to send to them so that they can send them back to the family for all occasions,” says O’Hart.
All the women are retired, and many have family members who either are or have served in the military. Each year, they send two shipments to troops overseas. One shipment is sent in March, and another is sent in October, both before the major holidays like Mother’s Day and Christmas. The shipment they’re currently working on will be sent to troops in Turkey. Thus far, "Texas Cards for Troops" has mailed packages to eight countries, five battleships and several local Veteran Health hospitals.
“We put a little pocket flag, cocoa, and oatmeal, just something to remind them of home. And we put in a few peppermint candies, an appreciation card, a couple of Christmas cards, birthday cards, a couple of all occasion cards, and an ornament of some kind.”
A dozen or more of the cards are included in about 200 packets the ladies put together for each shipment. Each packet also includes snacks, knitted items, a small pocket American flag, and appreciation cards signed by the group, children and members of the community. In all, the group typically sends anywhere between 2,000-3,500 cards each time.
“The flags are folded and put in this little plastic bag with a note on it that says, ‘a flag for your pocket so you can always carry a little piece of home. We’re praying for you and we are so proud of you. Thank you for defending our Country and our Freedom,’” says Elizabeth Taylor, Peppy Blount ALA Unit 320, Rockin’ Grannys president.
Taylor’s Gilmer-based ALA chapter adopted the initiative after learning of the work being done by the ladies in Longview. Now, the Rockin’ Grannys provides the carefully folded small American flags that are included in every packet the group sends out. They also collect recycled greeting cards from people in the community to re-purpose and send to the troops.
“It’s only all positive,” says Taylor. “With the work that you do, you know that it’s going overseas for our troops.”
In addition to sending the cards and packets to soldiers overseas, the group makes sure to do the same for servicemen and women who are stationed in the states.
“A person will start talking to one of us and we ask if they have anybody in the military, and would they like for us to send them a packet for Christmas,” says O’Hart. “If we can get their cooperation, we send not only to the person they recommended but also their unit.”
The group uses donations, profits from sales events, and their own money to pay for postage and supplies to make the cards and packets. They also volunteer for other ALA activities aimed to support veterans, like “Run for the Wall” and assisting at the Longview VA Clinic.
Over the years, the group has received several letters and gifts of appreciation to show their kind work doesn’t go unnoticed.
"We don’t need a ‘thank you’, but one ‘thank you’ goes a million miles for us,” says Linda Langley, ALA Unit 131 president and “Texas Cards for Troops” co-founder. “We’ve received a letter thanking you from the USS Cole, from Commander Neilson. We have gotten letters of appreciation from the Army, from the Marines, and one of our groups actually sent us a gift."
Langley says one of their main goals is to encourage other auxiliaries to adopt the “Texas Cards for Troops” program.
"We want other card makers, churches and clubs to get involved,” Langley says. “We have hundreds of thousands of militaries serving. They need some TLC. We can all do our part. If you're a knitter, crochet, a card maker, even just packing a box. It means so much to them."
If you have a loved one in the service and would like them to receive a special packet from “Texas Cards for Troops” or if you’d like to make a donation to the group, call 903-759-9214 or email alatct@yahoo.com.