The Gallery Collection Donates 40,000 Greeting Cards to Soldiers’ Angels for Returning Troops

The Gallery Collection has a long standing history of supporting our troops both at home and overseas. Today, we are proud to announce a donation of 40,000 greeting cards to Soldiers’ Angels for the troops that will be returning home from Iraq. We are especially honored to be making the announcement today, on the National Pearl Harbor Day of Remembrance, December 7th, 2011.

On October 21st, President Obama announced the end of The United States of America’s involvement in the war in Iraq. 40,000 troops will be coming home for the holidays, and The Gallery Collection is sending Soldiers’ Angels an equal number of cards for signing events, care packages and many other purposes to support our troops. We welcome our servicemen and women home gladly, and we are proud of their service to our nation.

Design 628CX - Peaceful Dove Holiday Greeting Card
One of the eight different card designs being donated by The Gallery Collection. What would you write inside greeting cards being sent to the Troops returning home?

While to many this issue is politically charged, what The Gallery Collection finds most important is the fact that after an 8 year involvement in Iraq, our troops will be returning home to family, friends, and all the people that have missed them and love them dearly. Some may feel we are bringing the troops home too early; others may feel as if the troops should have returned home years ago. But we can all agree that we will be happy to greet them when they come home.

The Gallery Collection has been working with Soldiers’ Angels since 2007, making numerous donations of greeting cards to help support them in their mission of “May No Soldier Go Unloved.” We are sincerely grateful to our troops, and pleased we can make such a large donation to welcome them home.

A Thank You Card from Iraq

I have this greeting card.  It’s hard to throw away.  I want to show it to someone, cherish it, keep it. It means something to me; something hard to say. I was pleased to receive it. In fact I was even proud. It is a thank you card. The thank you is from a Chaplain and a Sergeant to me personally. They are in the Army. They are in Iraq. I am sitting in my office outside New York City just across the George Washington Bridge in New Jersey. They have written to me to say thanks.

Personalized thank you card from COP Speicher

They are the ones owed a thanks. They are thanking me for donating holiday cards. The card is somehow different than the emails of thanks I have also received. It’s a piece of paper. IT was there, in their hands. The Chaplain and the Sergeant wrote it, signed it, and addressed it to me. In a sense it is a piece of them in a strange way. The few times I have gone to either throw away the card or give it to someone else to archive I have stopped. I can’t part with it. And a big part of that hesitation is the envelope.

The envelope is also hand addressed. The return address is COB Speicher. I am a bit of a news junkie. I remember who Scott Speicher was. Sadly, I presume he is dead. Lost in the first Gulf War he was listed as Killed-in-Action but then later revised to Missing-in-Action – his flight suit was found; his initials were suspiciously carved in a prison wall.  Iraqi records later found a listing of him as a captive. His parents and relatives endlessly hoping for a simple return address on a hand-scribed envelope from a far away place during a dark and uncertain time in the history of the world.

Envelope from COB Speicher

Where do we go from here? How will the world move forward and be at peace while protecting and providing rights to individuals? It is easy to be pessimistic. The reality is that we will all perish some day. It is what we do between now and that day that really matters. I wish the Chaplain and the Sergeant well. I wish for them a safe return. I wish for a bright future for my children and all of the children of this world.