Soldier's Angels

I am a writer. Writing is how I process my world. When I’m happy I want to write about it and when I’m sad or PO’d I can’t seem to get past it until I’ve poured it out somehow. One thing that has continually punched my emotional buttons since it started has been the war. My heart especially aches for those incredibly brave men and women who are serving, and for their families back at home. Writing about it in my journal or in letters to the editor or even fictional pieces has not helped. For years I have been searching for something that I could do to help, something that would make a real difference and on Memorial Day of this year, I finally found it. Through a news segment on one of the morning shows I discovered that several groups are holding letter writing campaigns for the troops and, after some research, I joined The Soldiers’ Angels Letter Writing Team at www.soldiersangels.org

Soldiers’ Angels was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organization whose motto is “May No Soldier Go Unloved”. SA’s purpose is to provide aid and comfort to the thousands of American Service Members stationed around the world by sending letters and care packages to deployed soldiers, lap top computers to wounded soldiers, blankets to military ambulances and memorial trees to the families of soldiers who have died in service to their country.

As part of the letter writing team I have signed up to write to two different soldiers a week, just to let them know that they are not forgotten, that they are supported and appreciated by the folks back home and that we are grateful for their, and their family’s, sacrifice. It’s incredibly satisfying to be able to express how I feel directly to the very people who need to hear it without the political nonsense getting in the way, just one human being reaching out to another…and if that’s not the definition of SUCCESSFUL writing, I don’t know what is.