Tell Them Thanks

Everyday, there are men and women from South Jersey (and from all over our country) stationed abroad, fighting for our country and for us. Tell Them Thanks is an organization dedicated to supporting these troops, by making sure that these troops have letters conveying friendship and appreciation for what they do, sent to them in the far away countries in which they are stationed.

You can become a member of Tell Them Thanks, and “adopt” a service member for the duration of their deployment. The requirements are that you send just one letter a month. You can send more letters or even care packages if you wish, but Tell Them Thanks just asks that you send at least one letter.

Tell Them Thanks was born because a previous troop support group closed. The Presidents Mary Ann Tozer and Lana France started their own, Tell Them Thanks, to fulfill the mission they had started out to do. “Our military shoulders a terrifically heavy load for the rest of us and often is under-appreciated. By writing at least one letter a month, our members offer their admiration, support, and friendship. We often hear about how important it is to our troops to hear their names called at mail call, and we make that happen for the American heroes who sign up with our group.”

Members of Tell Them Thanks also have other opportunities to help the troops. Members can participate in projects, sometimes with other troop support groups. These projects are things like making quilts for wounded soldiers, making hand-made cards for our troops, collecting stamps for the wounded and mailing manufacturer coupons to overseas bases where military families dwell. These projects are posted in the forum, and are not mandatory. It is up to the individual preference of the members.

Members can send more than one letter a month, or they can send care packages to their adopted service member. The Tell Them Thanks website has a list of permissible items that can be sent, as well as a few rules of membership. These rules, like keeping all service member information confidential, are to protect both the member and the service men and women.

There is no membership fee, or any kind of monetary commitment except the price of postage to mail your letters. Tell Them Thanks cannot guarantee that your service member will write you back, but “please remember that every letter or package means the world to your deployed service member even if you do not hear back from him/her. Tell Them Thanks was founded so that our soldiers are remembered at mail call, not so that we receive mail.”

Tell Them Thanks encourages their members to write about themselves and their families, as well as their interests like books, music or movies. Let the service member know how much you appreciate what they are doing, so they are encouraged and uplifted.

There are several wonderful things about Tell Them Thanks and their mission. “One is that we have the pleasure and the honor of putting our members, who understand the importance of the job our military is doing, in touch with the people who have actually volunteered to do that important job.”

Tell Them Thanks also connects you to other people with the same goal in mind and similar interests: helping the troops. “You will not find a more beautiful group of people than those who make up our membership. Some of us have met in person, and some of us have met only via the Internet, but we are a family.”

Also, if you know a service member that wants to be adopted, you can tell them to go to the website and they can sign up to be adopted. There is no commitment for service members. These service members are not even required to write back, Tell Them Thanks members will write whether they hear from them or not. Of course, it is always a blessing to these people to hear from their adoptee.

Tell Them Thanks is an internet based organization that wants to make sure that “every Soldier, Marine, Airman, Sailor and Guardsman will hear their names called at mail call.” They exist to support the men and women that support us everyday, in far away places and in tough situations.

You can find all the information to become a member and more at their website, TellThemThanks.com or you can contact them through email, TellThemThanks@yahoo.com.

If you are a service member that wants to be adopted, you can sign up online or send your information to

Tell Them Thanks
PO Box 222
Williamsport, PA 17703

or

info@TellThemThanks.com

6/29/15

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For more on local Organizations, visit our South Jersey Organizations page.

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Author: Jessica Westerland/Editor