An email from friend Polly in Savannah…

Polly Says: The note below is from my sweet niece Laurie whose husband Matt is serving his second tour of duty as a helicopter pilot in Iraq. If you can do this, she would like the cards by Nov. 21. Thank you in advance for helping Laurie and the troops. Spread the word! Polly Stramm

Hi everyone,

The holidays are just around the corner & when you think of your holiday celebration, you probably think of your cozy, comfortable home, surrounded by family, friends, lots of presents and food. For soldiers serving overseas, a holiday is just another long and dangerous day far from home. Thankfully, many soldiers have family and friends who constantly send letters and packages. Sadly, there are also many soldiers who go a whole year without receiving any mail at all. I need your help to make sure this doesn’t happen during the holidays. Here’s what I’m asking each of you to do: please write 3-5 holiday cards (ie. Happy Holidays, thank you for your service, stay safe and hurry home,etc) and put the cards in a larger envelope and mail them to me (my address is at the bottom). I will collect them and mail them overseas in boxes. I will ask some commanders to please hand them out to soldiers, especially those who receive little or no mail. You may sign the cards with your name and city/state if you’d like. Please don’t address the cards to any soldier specifically, just leave the card envelope blank. Please help with this- it will only take a few minutes out of your day and possibly $1 in postage. I plan to attach something small to each card (ie. candy cane, small pack of gum, fun size bag of skittles,etc). If you’d like to send those things, that would be wonderful, but all I’m asking from you is to write the cards & send them to me. It might seem very insignificant to us to receive a card and a candy cane, but to a soldier who has been away for 10 months and hasn’t received any mail, it could mean the world. Please help me make sure that no soldier goes empty-handed at mail call on Christmas day. Thank you!! *Please feel free to share this with friends, family, co-workers, school/church groups,etc.

Those of you who are teachers or who have children, your students/kids could make cards and write notes- that would be an easy and inexpensive community service project. Thank you for your help and support,

Laurie Junko
125 North Decatur Lane
Decatur, GA 30033

By the way, Polly tells me that Laurie and her sister are both Auburn Graduates! Polly adds, Her maiden name is Sparks in case anyone knows that name. Her Dad is Roy Sparks and her uncle is Terry Sparks, both are retired high school football coaches and Auburn alum who help out with the summer football clinics at Auburn. (My twin sisters are married to the Sparks brothers, who are also twins.) War Eagle & Buy some Cards!!