2016 Update: Thank you for your interest in our Holiday Mail for Heroes program. This year the program has transitioned to Holidays for Heroes, where local Red Cross offices can identify and engage local members of the military and veteran communities in a variety of activities to offer thanks and recognition. We would encourage you to contact your local Red Cross office for details. If they are not participating in Holidays for Heroes, please reach out to your local military and veterans organizations to inquire about their holiday activities.
Each year the American Red Cross community honors veterans, military families and active-duty service members by sending cards and personal messages of encouragement to our heroes around the world. The Holiday Mail For Heroes campaign has allowed us to send missions of cards to service members, bringing smiles and a touch of home to our service members who cannot be with their families for the holidays.
This year, we’re expanding the ways you can participate in this terrific program.
If you’re an Instagram , Vine, or general Twitter user, you can tag photos or video messages with the #HolidayMail hashtag and we will be able to display these on our blog so service members across the country and around the world will be able to see your cheery holiday message!
Sending an image or video will save trees, reduce the amount of mail that needs sorting, brings cheer to MANY service members, and has a much faster delivery time than mailed cards. We will be hosting all of the videos on a special Holiday Mail page so that any hospital, military installation, or veterans center will be easily able to display the stream of videos for our military members. Also, the stream can be accessed at anytime, simply look up #HolidayMail on Twitter.
Some tips for a good visual content:
- Make sure you’re in a well-lit area
- If you’re doing a video, be sure to speak clearly and not too fast (we’re sure you have a LOT to say!)
- Use a generic greeting (we cannot guarantee a specific member of the military will view your video)
- Send a generic holiday message like:
- Thank you for serving! We wish you a safe and wonderful holiday season!
- Happy Holidays! I hope this message brings you a smile.
- Tag your video with #HolidayMail before you post it
- GET CREATIVE! Sing part of your favorite holiday song, capture snowmen and snow angels, have a (safe) snowball fight, get your friends and family involved!
We may even use some of the best pictures and videos we see for a separate post on our site – so have fun with this. We’re excited to help you spread even more holiday cheer this season!
Look for your pictures and videos in our live stream HERE:
Want to learn more about the Holiday Mail For Heroes program? Click Here