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HISTORY

A note from Darby Jameson, founder of the Operation Holiday Card collection: 

            This project started in 2006 when my husband was deployed to Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait over the holidays.  Our children were 2 years old and 7 months old at the time.  We were sending him care packages and other mail every other week.  He mentioned that he was getting much more mail than most of the other people he worked with.  I thought it was sad that so many people were not getting holiday mail, when they were away from their families.  So I asked my friends and family to send a few extra holiday cards to me so I could send them on.  My husband contacted the right people at his base to distribute the cards and Operation Holiday Card was born.  The goal for the first year in 2006 was 200 cards, we collected 1,500 cards.  In 2007 I encouraged my friends and family to take the project to their workplaces and churches, and I posted the project on Livejournal.com.  The projects took off, in 2007 we collected over 16,000 cards. The cards come from families, schools, scout troops, churches, synagogues, offices, and individuals.  The cards come in from all 50 states and even from a few Americans living overseas.

            Once the cards are received they are counted, sorted, and boxed.  In 2006 and 2007 this one done mostly by one person, but is has gotten too big for me to handle.  Broadmoor United Methodist Church, my church home at the time of the collection's creation, took on the collection in 2008.  This little idea has grown into a wonderful project that touches many lives during the holiday season.