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Can you write an extra letter or two?
July 13, 2009 by Nicki Faulk
Got some spare time? How about joining the Letter Writing Team and sending mail to soldiers who are waiting to be adopted and have never received any mail from anyone!
The Letter Writing Team (LWT) is made up of registered Soldiers’ Angels who enjoy writing to our heroes, and who know how important it is to hear your name called at mail call. (Sadly some soldiers get no mail at all from back home!!!) We select names from those that submit themselves through the Soldiers’ Angel website and have indicated that they would like to receive additional support. These soldiers are also assigned an Angel to provide ongoing support, but our team provides them with some extra cards and letters.
How it Works
You may sign up for as many days in the week as would like to write letters. On each day you sign up for, your assigned LWT Team Leader will send you (via email) a new name and address to write to. You are only asked to send one card or letter to each address you receive, but of course may send more if you like.
Please remember that for security reasons, all our soldiers’ addresses are confidential to Soldiers’ Angels and can only be shared with other registered Soldiers’ Angels, not outside Soldiers’ Angels.
Please note that members of the Letter Writing Team must be at least 18 years old.
You can introduce yourself as a Soldiers Angel and member of the LWT, thank the soldier (or Sailor, Airman or Marine) for their service to our country and let them know a little about yourself, your family, and anything else you would like to share (they all seem to enjoy hearing about everyday “back home” activities). We only send out regular mail addresses to LWT members, but you are welcome to include your email in your letter and you may get an email back.
Please do not include anything that could be deemed disrespectful by the soldier or could possibly make him/her feel uncomfortable. We are solely here to let the soldier know that there are people back home that care about them and their families, plus appreciate the sacrifices that they and their families make during this time.
Upon receipt of the required information, you will be assigned to one of the LWT Team Leaders and be notified as to who it is. If you are new to SA, this may take up to 72 hours. If you are currently a registered member of Soldiers’ Angels, you will receive your LWT “Team Leader” within a few hours, depending on when information was received at Soldiers’ Angels.
Your LWT Team Leader is the person who will send you the name or names on the day or days that you have requested a soldier’s name to write to. The LWT Team Leader is also your point of contact for changes to your days, adding/dropping the number of names to receive each designated day, needing to drop from the LWT, not receiving names as requested, and other questions that you may have. If the question is not related to the LWT, then you will be directed to the appropriate person or group for assistance.
Join the LWT on our website www.soldiersangels.org.
Got a few spare moments? You could fulfill a need!
May 15, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Hello Angels!
I’ve been making an effort to be more active in the Soldiers’ Angels forums recently and wanted to take a few minutes to share a few things that I’ve found with you…
There are so many helpful Angels that I’ve run across, I honestly don’t know where I would have been without their help! 
Any new Angel member would be wise to check in Angel Boot Camp. It has a TON of tips and helpful advice posted there and is a great place to ask questions. OR, if you’re a seasoned Angel, you could post tips there, or head over to Questions and share some wisdom and help out other Angels!
Personally, I think I spend the most of my time in TLC Requests and Cards Plus Team (ALL sub-forums!). I love writing, so fulfilling the requests posted is something that’s quick and easy for me for me to do. It makes me feel good and I know that it does so much good for the soldiers that the requests are going to!
Are you a letter writing pro? You might find the those aren’t enough … if so, hop over to the Letter Writing Team! They could have requests that you could easily fill! Are you the type who writes and/or collects postcards? There’s a section for you! Like to write, but can’t get to the Post Office that often? No problem, there’s the E-Pal Team!
But what if writing is not your talent? There are TONS of other ways to help out! Do you like to cook and bake? Visit the Angel Bakers forums!
Can you sew? The Sewing Team always has projects going on and can use extra hands!
There are so many more, and many requests just take a few minutes to fill. If you have a few spare minutes and want to help, hop on over to the Soldiers’ Angels forums and find something that fits your talents and interests!
My Frequently Used & Bookmarked
May 4, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Here are a few entries from the Soldiers’ Angels forums that I keep bookmarked and refer to now and again. These may be useful to Bama Angels who’ve adopted a soldier:
- Where is my soldier located?
- How to Find out More about your Adoptee
- Care package suggestions
- Themed Care Package Ideas List
- Important Phone Numbers & Sites for Shipping
- Customs Forms Are Online
- Flat Rate Boxes (new!)
- website for free return address labels
- Getting more involved
Cure that letter writer’s block!
March 26, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
The Soldiers’ Angels Mentor Team members are the absolute best. Mine is Dina. She’s been a huge inspiration to me and ever since I joined, she’s patiently answered all of my questions and helped out whenever I needed a nudge in the right direction, or some friendly advice.
One thing she emailed recently were suggestions for getting those creative juices flowing and getting around that letter writer’s block that some of us get:
- Buy a bunch of postcards from your area. On the back, jot down a note about what they are looking at, and what you did at that spot.
- Start looking for jokes on the internet or in your newspaper. Cut them out, jot a note and send it off.
- I hit the Dollar tree for funny cards, thinking of you cards, etc. (They are 2 for a buck) and then jot a note inside about the weather, something funny my son did, who won the big game, a movie I saw, etc.
- Grab a crossword puzzle book from the dollar store, and tear out a couple of the pages and send them along. Tell him that you’ll send the answers page in the next letter.
- Do you have any contact w/any school age children? If so, have them draw some pictures to send along. Heroes LOVE hearing from kids!
- Enlist the help of folks at church…grab a big card or cards and have a bunch of people sign it as a show of support.
Those are some great tips. A big ‘Thank You!!’ goes out to Dina for sharing.
Something else she shared with me:
One Iraqi Marine vet recently told an Angel he met that our letters and care packages are like “oxygen” to them … nothing means more to them than knowing a stranger cares about them while they are over there.
Amen! That’s pretty much what my soldier has told me as well. It may seem like a simple thing to us, but to those brave men and women overseas, our letters and packages are one of the most precious things in the world!
Do you have a tip to share?
All tips and suggestions for other letter writers out there are greatly appreciated!
Soldiers’ Angels 101: Reminders
March 20, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
One angel emailed me this morning, it seems she was having trouble remembering when she had or hadn’t emailed her soldier, and she was looking for suggestions as to how to remember this important task and perhaps organize her duties a bit. Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m a forgetful type too. I get busy and time escapes me, I know I’m not alone in this. We all get busy but we should never neglect our adopted soldiers!
I’ve found it’s helpful to setup a “nag” to remind me each week. For example, every Monday morning I have both my Google Calendar and my Outlook at work nag me to write that afternoon. Tuesday mornings, I have another nag set to remind me to mail out the letter. (Or, in the extreme case that I was so busy I forgot to write, to write it!) Google Calendar is a free service and can send you reminders by email, SMS (standard charges will apply!), or popup.
If you are a Mozilla user, there are two apps which may be of interest to you: Sunbird (a stand-alone app) and Lightning (Thunderbird plugin). Both are free, and perform basically the same tasks as Google Calendar and Outlook’s calendar feature.
There are a TON of free reminder services if you would prefer an alternative to the above.
There’s a wide world of free tools and technology out there just waiting for us, so let’s put it to good use!
Send a greeting card to a soldier
March 14, 2008 by Nicki Faulk
Special thanks to Greta @ Hooah Wife for spreading the word about this!
The US Postal Service has partnered with HBO for the promotion of John Adab’s series about John Adams. You go onto the website and create your letter, and it will be mailed out for free. The letters will be First-Class Mail postmarked with the Power of the Letter cancellation mark. A pretty cool concept, but pity we’re only just now finding out about it! (ends this month)
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