Welcome to our Frequently Asked Questions Page. If you do not find the answer to your question here please feel free to contact us at lettersfromhome@windstream.net
1. Can you give me the name or address of a soldier to have as a pen-pal?
2. How does Letters From Home get soldier's addresses?
3. Can I add my loved one who is in the service to your mailing list?
4. Who does Letters From Home send mail and care packages to?
6. How do I know my items are getting to those who need them most?
7. Why can't I seal my card or note in it's envelope?
8. Why can't I send homemade cookies, etc. to the soldiers?
9. How exactly does this program work?
10. What is a "letter stuffing" party?
11. How do I get my items to Letters From Home?
13. Why do we always use the word "soldier"?
1. Can you give me the name or address of a soldier to
have as a pen-pal?
No, we cannot do this because of HIPPA privacy laws and to protect the
safety of our soldiers. However, if you include your name and address or
e-mail address with the items you send to the soldiers many of them who
have the time will write back to you and then you can carry on
correspondence on your own with them. Many, many of our soldiers do this
and appreciate hearing from the same people/families.
2. How does Letters From Home get soldier's addresses?
Many of the addresses we have for soldiers have come from their family
members.
3. Can I add my loved one who is in the service to your
mailing list?
YES! Please contact us and give the address along with the
soldier's name. We will make sure they are added to our next mailing
campaign.
4. Who does Letters From Home send mail and care
packages to?
Letters From Home sends mail and care packages to any member of any of
our United States Armed Services. It does not matter if they are in the
USA or overseas. The only requirement is that they are in one of the
branches of service.
5. How do I know the soldiers are getting the items I
send, or are benefiting from the money I donate?
One of the best ways that you can know how the soldiers are benefiting
from the items you give is to receive your own letter back from a
soldier thanking you for the items. That is why we ask you to put your
return address with your cards and items you donate to the program. Letters From Home is also a 501c3 organization. If you need
more information, please feel free to contact us
.
6. How do I know my items are getting to those who need
them most?
Once The Letters From Home Program has established a contact with a
soldier, we ask them if there is anyone that they know of that is not
receiving as much mail from home as others are. We then add these
additional soldiers to our list. When our items are shipped there is no
preference made, all soldiers receive the same amount of items. The
Letters From Home Program also sends to military hospitals at their
request where
are wounded are recovering. These hospitals previously have include Landstuhl
Regional Medical Hospital in Germany; Bethesda Naval Hospital in
Maryland; and Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC.
Currently the only hospital we are serving with our program is Landstuhl Regional Medical Hospital in Germany (11/07). This is the hospital where the wounded first arrive before being transferred to the United States. For those asking, we would be glad to serve the hospitals in the USA also, but they are saturated with mail from other good caring programs, so we only supply when asked. We also do not release addresses for any hospital so do not ask for us to allow that you try to send the packages yourself.
7. Why can't I seal my card or note in it's envelope?
The reason for this is we want only positive messages of encouragement
and pride for our troops. We screen all items that are sent to be sure
they are of a cheerful note and fitting for our soldiers.
8. Why can't I send homemade cookies, etc. to the
soldiers?
The reason for this is simply the safety of our soldiers. We have no way
of knowing who made homemade items or what they could contain.
9. How exactly does this program work?
If you haven't found the answer to that question on our site, here it
is! Send us your handwritten letters or cards, and items you've
collected from our donation list. The items must be in by the deadline
date or they will be held for the next campaign. On the day of the
letter stuffing, the Letters From Home Committee gathers with many
caring citizens (all are welcome to attend) and places letters and cards
into pre-addressed hand-written envelopes. The envelopes are then put
into boxes, each unit has one box, or two or three, depending on it's
size. The boxes are then shipped. After that we just wait to hear back
from the soldiers. It usually takes two weeks for the soldiers to
receive their items, and then another 10-14 days to hear back from them.
10. What is a "letter stuffing" party?
A letter stuffing party is what we call it when the Letters From Home
Committee gathers with caring citizens (all are welcome to attend) and
places the letters and cards that have been collected into envelopes.
Usually we have a room with tables covered in mail. Each person is
handed a pre-addressed envelope and told to take "their soldier" and
put in a certain number of letters into it. When the envelope is stuffed
it then goes into that soldier's unit's box.
11. How do I get my items to Letters From Home?
If you live in our local area you can use one of our drop off locations
that are listed
here. Otherwise you can mail your items to us at,
Letters From Home Program
Ms.Christine Jovenitti, Director
P.O.Box125
6631 Ridgway Johnsonburg Rd.
Johnsonburg, PA 15845
You can also contact us at our email address if you need more information.
lettersfromhome@windstream.net
12. How can I sign up for the Letters From Home
Newsletter to find out when the next campaign is and what items are
being collected?
Please contact us at our email address and let us know you'd like to be added to
our newsletter mailing list. Please also include your address.
13. Why do we always use the word "soldier"? We use the term "soldier" to refer to anyone serving our Country, they can be in any of our Armed Forces. We love each and everyone who serves our Country equally.