http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6639833
Xerox Sends Thanks to Troops
Thousands of Messages Sent for Free to Troops So Far
The
colors might be blurry and the handwriting lopsided, but the message
couldn’t be clearer: Thank You.It’s the message thousands of American
troops have received in the form of colorful, homemade cards courtesy
of Xerox’s “Let’s Say Thanks” program, which puts the creative
earnestness of children and heartfelt messages of adults in the hands
of soldiers thousands of miles away — all for free.”It was an idea
that came from Xerox employees [to show] gratitude for the men and
women overseas,” Carl Langsenkamp, V.P. of public relations for Xerox,
told ABC News. “We said to kids, ‘Just draw images of your
hometown.'”The children answered and they have not let up since the
program started two years ago. Thousands of kids submitted their
postcard designs, and a lucky few were selected to be available to send
to the troops.
While senders cannot control which soldiers
receive the cards, they can add their name along with whatever other
personal message they’d like to send.Then, Xerox set up the
LetsSayThanks.com Web site and allowed anyone to send a soldier one of
the kids’ cards with a personal message at no charge to the
sender.”It’s not about the conflict over there, but the men and women
serving over there,” Langsenkamp said. “The military personnel get a
lot out of it just by looking at the comments [on the Web site].”
The
Web site lists dozens of comments from soldiers, all expressing deep
gratitude for the cards they have received.”Thank you so much for the
post card. It is so nice to receive things in the mail here,” one Army
sergeant wrote. “Some would not believe it but the simple good feeling
of going to the company mail room and the clerk saying, ‘Yes, you have
mail’ is an uplifting experience. Even if it’s just a letter saying,
‘hi’ [it] makes our day! Thanks again for your thoughts and
prayers.”According to Langsenkamp, Xerox does not have plans to stop
the program anytime soon.”We’re hoping,” he said. “We’d like to see it
end tomorrow if all the men and women came home, but for now we’re
going to keep it going for the men and women overseas.”