AS AN ALL-VOLUNTEER NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION, WE DEPEND ON SUPPORT TO SHIP THE CARDS OVERSEAS. WE HAVE ASKED THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE TO PERMIT OUR ORGANIZATION TO MAIL THE CARDS TO OUR TROOPS FREE OF CHARGE, BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THEY TURNED US DOWN. PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD, ONLY IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO DONATE.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT NOTICE TO HELP US PROPERLY FACILITATE THIS IMPORTANT PROGRAM,

We will begin accepting cards and care packages on September 1, 2024. The deadline for all cards in our office is December 5, 2024. Please do not mail any cards past this deadline. Our volunteers need time to sort, box, and mail the cards to various bases worldwide in time for Christmas. We received cards well after Christmas last year; please understand that it takes weeks for the mail service to ship them to various military bases worldwide for our troops to receive them in time for Christmas. Do not seal your cards in an envelope; we do not need envelopes. All cards are mixed and re-boxed into larger boxes so that your cards are received at various military bases.

We want to thank everyone who participated in this program last year. We have received tens of thousands of cards from small towns and communities all over our nation. We cannot thank everyone personally because of the sheer number of cards we received.

Our volunteers need ample time to open all cards, sort the cards, box and weigh the cards to mail them half way around the world to our deployed troops. This process takes an amazing amount of time and energy to ensure that the cards make it to our deployed troops by Christmas day.

Because of the popularity of this incredible morale-boosting program, we are now expecting to receive double the amount of Christmas cards this year.

However, as an ALL-VOLUNTEER 501c3 nonprofit organization, we need your help and support. It cost our organization thousands of dollars to box the cards and mail them overseas to our troops in various parts of the world. We are thankful to those folks who made donations last year to ensure the continuation and success of this program but we did run short with funding. Thankfully, many of our own volunteers and staff pitched in to make up the shortfall. Since no one in our organization receives a salary for our work, the money we do collect is boxing and for the shipping cost which is expensive these days.

We are now asking and requesting that anyone who would like to send in cards, please help us to continue this terrific program during this special of the year by making a donation. If you are sending more than 10 cards, please make a tax deductible donation by clicking the donate link or by mailing a check with the cards you are sending. All checks must be made payable to, ‘United Soldiers and Sailors of America’. A good rule of thumb for making a donation is the more cards you send, the more you should contribute. The cost of mailing boxes of cards overseas is expensive. I n general and depending on the country, it cost us approximately $45.00 to ship 200 cards. We know that this is a difficult year and if you are unable to make a contribution, please send us a message by clicking the following link: CONTACT US

This year, please mail your cards to the following address:

USASOA. Christmas Cards For Our Troops

714 Farmington Road West

Accokeek, Maryland 20607

202-465-8737

You may also send CARE PACKAGE ITEMS to the address above.

• Please send the card only - no envelopes, keep the envelopes for your personal use. We sort and mix all cards that we receive from various parts of our country and then rebox them for shipment overseas to various military bases around the world often in the care of military Chaplains.

• If you are making Christmas cards, do not use glitter or any other product that could come loose when we open the box or envelope in which you will be mailing us your cards. Our office is within walking distance to the United States Capitol and security is of paramount importance these days.

• Please do not send any homemade cookies or other homemade baked goods, unfortunately, that is the world in which we live. You may send commercially wrapped and unopened, non-perishable food or snack items. Our troops will generally send us requests for care packages during the Holiday season. USASOA sends care packages all year long to troops who contact us. If you need an idea of what goes into the care packages that they request, please visit our Care Packages For Our Deployed Troops page for more information.

• Some folks have emailed us asking if they could acquire the address for our deployed troops so they can send them care packages. We never divulge the APO military addresses of our deployed troops to the general public, again we take the security of our troops very seriously and we know that you do as well. USASOA follows all guidelines set out by the Department of Defense for the safety and security of our service members who are often stationed in dangerous areas around the world.

• Last Christmas we received thousands and thousands of cards and thankfully only a few of the cards contained hateful messages for our troops - please keep all hate-filled messages to yourself and ask God to please lighten your heart and give you a better sense of the sacrifices made for your freedom. As a result, our volunteers actually read every Christmas card to ensure that all messages are filled with respect, compassion, and love for our military.

• You may begin mailing in your Christmas cards on September 1, 2024 - the new address for you to mail us your cards is posted above. The deadline for all cards is December 5, 2024 - please do not mail in any cards past this date as they will be returned, our volunteers need time to sort all cards, box, and label them as well as have enough time for us to mail the cards halfway around the world to ensure our troops receive your cards by Christmas Day. For instance, if you live in California - it takes at least 3 days for us to receive that mail, so you would want to mail in your cards three days before December 1. please be mindful of the deadline.

• As a nonprofit organization, we depend on tax-deductible contributions to operate our mission. While this particular program is a huge morale booster for our deployed troops, our focal mission is to provide for the care and comfort of our ill, injured, and wounded veterans which also includes our homeless and at-risk veterans. We provide food, shelter, toiletries, and other essential items for a veteran in need of the essentials of life. To that end, we must raise enough, dedicated funds to have the thousands of cards boxed and mailed out to the Middle East and other areas around the world where our troops are deployed.

• We believe that there is a huge misgiving that nonprofits do not have to pay for postage to mail the cards but we do and that cost can be enormous depending on the number of cards sent to us from do many graciously caring Americans. We ask everyone to please make a tax-deductible donation to help us pay for the postage. Our incredible volunteers do the rest of the work and it truly is a great deal of work to handle and process so many Christmas cards. If anyone would like to host a fundraiser to help pay for the postage we need to mail the cards overseas, please get in touch with Us

• Personal messages of peace and goodwill and ‘Thank You For Your Service’ can be written on the cards. Feel free to add your religious or nonreligious Christmas card messages, we leave that up to the individual, and we respect both.

• Please refrain from placing your personal return address or email address in the message or on the cards. Please feel free to sign your name, city, or town, as well as your business, church group, place of worship, school, college, or organization, is acceptable. Again, you will not be sending any envelopes for the cards, but if you would like to send a care package item, please take a look at the item most requested by our troops and feel free to package and mail them along with your cards: Care Packages For Our Deployed Troops

  If you have any questions, please feel free to use the box below to message us. Or, you may also call our Capitol Hill office at 202-465-8737