Service Communications2

Hello Parents - here is an opportunity for your teens to do service for other children!  Cards for Hospitalized Kids is an internationally recognized charitable organization that spreads hope, joy & magic to hospitalized kids across America through uplifting, handmade cards.  Anyone can get involved by creating a handmade card.  Please see the website below for information on what to write (and what not to write) and where to mail the completed cards.  

Take a picture of the cards you create and attach them to your service log!
http://www.cardsforhospitalizedkids.com/

Operation Gratitude is an organization that we have supported in the past by asking the teens to write letters to deployed troops during our Service Sundays.  The Paracord Challenge is a new way to support this organization by making paracord (parachute cord) bracelets that are distributed to troops and veterans.  This particular Challenge is to make paracord bracelets for Vietnam Veterans.  All the information is in the note below.  I found that if you google 'paracord' or 'paracord bracelets' you can find paracord to buy at reasonable prices. 

Click here to view the official challenge rules.
Click here to sign up for the challenge.
Click here for videos on how to make the bracelets.
Click here for one store I found where you can buy "550" paracord

Email from Operation Gratitude with all the information:
I want to start by saying thank you for your extraordinary support of Operation Gratitude! During an unprecedented time of crisis, volunteers like you stepped up like never before and positively impacted deployed troops, veterans, first responders, and healthcare heroes in 2021. With your continued help in 2022, we will honor the service of our military and first responders.

We are kicking off the year with our 3rd Annual Vietnam Veteran Paracord Challenge to specifically honor those who served in the Vietnam War.

Beginning March 17th, for 2 weeks, we are challenging our amazing volunteers across the nation to make paracord bracelets in red, green, or yellow, which are the colors of the service ribbons our brave Vietnam heroes received when they returned home. There are approximately 850,000 Vietnam Veterans in the United States and we are on a mission to thank every single one of them.

In a tangible way, Operation Gratitude will honor these brave Veterans who sacrificed so much in service to our nation. In recent years, Americans have united to say “thank you” to this forgotten generation of heroes, but we can do more, and with your help, we WILL do more to express gratitude to them and their families. 

Will you join us?  Click here to sign up for the challenge.

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In March of 2003, Operation Gratitude sent its first four care packages to deployed service members in Iraq. Since its inception, the organization has encouraged millions of Americans to express their gratitude through hands-on volunteerism, in turn lifting the spirits of more than 3.3 million deployed troops, recruit graduates, veterans, military families, first responders, and healthcare heroes.
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Please join us on this journey, and together, we can thank those who serve.

Click here to view the official challenge rules.

With Gratitude,
Kelly South
Handmade with Love Program Director
Phone 818-960-7555
Monday - Friday 9 am - 4 pm PST (West Coast)
Please join our Operation Gratitude In Action volunteer group Facebook page!
#ActionsSpeakLouder
#VirtualVolunteerism