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| Supporting Our Troops, One Card at a Time May 2009 Perhaps your "to do" list each May includes buying a Mother's Day card. Easy enough to accomplish at the grocery store, the bookstore, or the drugstore, right? Not so for soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan—particularly those stationed in remote areas. "The small supply of cards available in the little set-up shops is usually gone within a few hours, and what's there is often dirty or dusty," explains Beverly Penick, facility security officer at MITRE's Scott Air Force Base site in Illinois. For the past four years, Penick has been quietly doing her part to provide troops with a convenience many of us take for granted. She has been sending packages of blank, handcrafted cards so that deployed soldiers and airmen have a selection from which to choose to mail home—to their moms, for the holidays, for Valentine's Day, and the like. With the help of an Air Force chaplain at Scott AFB, she recently shipped 1,004 Mother's Day cards to 13 chaplains in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. Each card was in a plastic sleeve to protect it from dirt and dust. The effort began in 2005, when Penick's friend's son was deployed to Iraq. "He was in an outlying area and had limited access to some basics," she says. "It's not like home, where you can just stop by the store and pick up a few things." She organized an office donation to gather hand sanitizer, Band Aids, tissues, and candy to send to his Army unit. When her friend mentioned that her son had sent a birthday card as a Christmas card—with Happy Birthday scratched out—Penick added handmade holiday and Valentine's Day cards to the care packages. Thus began what Penick calls her mission.
Family Ties Penick has some advantages when it comes to cards. First, she is incredibly creative, making many of the cards herself. She is also a demonstrator for Stampin'Up!, a manufacturer of decorative rubber stamps and card and scrapbook accessories. This background, combined with her own connection to the military—she comes from a four-generation Navy family, and her husband is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant—provided a natural way for her to thank the men and women of the armed services."With the time difference, phone calls can be a challenge, and access to the Internet is sometimes sporadic," says Penick. "The cards help soldiers keep in touch with people back home." One of the chaplains sent an e-mail to thank Penick for the shipment of Mother's Day cards. He wrote: "As I opened the box, a Technical Seargent's eyes lit up as he asked if he could have one for his 'mommy.' Helping families stay connected is an important outreach. Your mission is definitely helping make that happen." When Penick shared this note with her network of rubber stamp enthusiasts, a domino effect set in. "Now there are 25 other stampers across the country doing the same thing," she says excitedly. Stamped with Care "MITRE has been very supportive of my mission work," says Penick who uses company community service time for some of her volunteer hours. She also credits Cheryl Heimerman, senior domain operations analyst at Scott AFB, and two women based at MITRE's McLean location--Meghan Manley, a multi-discipline systems engineer, and Louise Lighthart, office administrative specialist--for their support. All three are helping spread the word about Penick's next project: creating hundreds of holiday cards for troops to choose from. The Stampin' Holiday Cards for the Troops, scheduled for July 19, 2009 at the Drury Inn and Suites in O'Fallon, Ill., will offer people a chance to "take some time to give back," she says. "Even the hotel is donating the space as a way to thank service members." As Manley notes, this event is "going to make a significant impact on the morale of our troops." Anyone can help make cards—no stamping experience is required. "A fellow stamper's 10- and 12-year-old daughters and Cheryl Heimerman's Girl Scout Troop helped make Mother's Day cards," says Penick, whose son, a high school junior, has helped on occasion. Penick downplays the enormity of her effort. She just wants the troops to know people care. "In our daily lives, it's easy to forget how much our troops sacrifice to defend our freedoms," she says. A quote attached to the end of every e-mail she sends speaks to her humility: "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." —by Karina H. Wright Page last updated: March 10, 20010 | Top of page |
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