As promised... here is what I'm up to.

OK, sooo..... you know I started my own PERSONAL Christmas card drive for the troops back on October 1 (as evidenced by the post on top of this blog that stays put 24/7 until it's over!). Well.... the morning show of a MAJOR local radio station, Q100, decided last week that they wanted to do something to thank our troops for Thanksgiving. And not just the ones in Iraq & Afghanistan, either -- soldiers deployed ALL OVER THE WORLD! Apparently, they came up with this idea during their morning show one day last week, but didn't know how to actually make it happen. A friend of mine tipped me off to what they were doing, and more than one friend who heard their idea emailed them to tell them to contact me. I emailed too, offering to help, and faster than you can say, "MAIL CALL!" I was suddenly Project Manager of the biggest, most ambitious project any radio station has ever attempted! (note to self: don't think about that too much, you'll freak out if you do!) Truth be told, I was and am VERY EXCITED to be able to help them out in getting this done... this project and others like it (like my own project, hehe) are so very dear to my heart...because our TROOPS are so very dear to my heart!!!

My office is participating fully in this (in other words, my schedule is very flexible during this time to pitch in to help as needed) and also allowed me to send a firm-wide email to all our offices all over the US. Yay for my office! :)

A wonderful team of volunteers are forming - the entire city of Atlanta (and other parts of the US) is just SO eager to show our troops how much we are thankful for them!!! Warms my heart, makes me cry. :) It's a beautiful thing. Soldiers Angels and AnySoldier.com are both helping extensively with providing shipping addresses.

It's all coming together in a cool way!! So, read the info below, and send a letter for THANKSGIVING (do NOT send it to my personal post office box -- this is a totally separate project, not my own - send to the address below!)

The Bert Show's Big Thank You

Each letter should be heartfelt, handwritten, original, and free of any political statements. The purpose of the letter is to express thanks to the military personnel serving the United States. We reserve the right to eliminate those messages that are political in nature and that do not reflect a positive message in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Those letters will be destroyed.

All letters must be on 8.5 X 11 paper or smaller. Do not use glue, tape, staples, cardboard, glitter or otherwise attach anything to the paper. Decorate using crayons, pencil, etc. Use both side if you like, but use one page per letter only. Do not send cards or photographs. Feel free to include your mailing and email address, if you like and you may get a response. Do not put letters in individual envelopes.

Do not send anything except letters. We cannot accept donations of any kind, and they should not be included or attached to letters.

Please review the guidelines below to submit your letters:

Every individual letter is important, but for organizational purposes, please try to submit letters in bulk whenever possible. Work with your school, church, sorority/fraternity, office, neighborhood, etc. and send all letters bundled as directed below.

Letters should be bundled in groups of 50, 100, or 250 and held together in with two rubber bands, one wrapped lengthwise and the other widthwise. This will help tremendously with sorting. The top page in the bundle should indicate clearly how many letters are included. Do not bundle letters unless they are in groups of 50, 100, or 250.

If you have a partial bundle of less than 50 letters, fasten them together with a paperclip. The top page in the group should clearly indicate how many letters are included.

If you are submitting 10 or fewer letters, the letters can be folded to fit into a standard business-size envelope.

Starting on Wednesday, October 17, letters can be dropped off at any Atlanta-area Taco Mac loaction. These locations can be found by clicking here: http://www.taco-mac.com/georgia.htm

If you prefer to mail in your letters, send them here:

The Bert Show's Big Thank You
3070 Windward Plaza
Suite F 350
Alpharetta, GA 30005

Our deadline is Friday October 26. All letters MUST be received by this day. Letters received after that deadline may not be sent to the military and will not be returned.