Gallery Collection

Supporting Our Troops with Some Holiday Cheer

H.L. DeVore, our Chief Marketing Officer, recently made a visit to the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas to seek out some potential new trends for our Greeting Card Blog. While touring the show he was introduced to Lou Kastendick, a representative for Soldiers' Angels, which is an organization that provides support to our nation's military men and women. The support programs implemented by Soldiers' Angels maintain the organization's motto "May No Soldier Go Unloved."

Lou connected H.L. with Patti Patton-Bader, the founder of Soldiers' Angels. It just so happened that Patti was in New York being honored with an Above and Beyond Award, bestowed by Microsoft and the USO to recognize the military support contributions of citizens across the country. H.L. flew home a few days later and met her for lunch in the city.

Being a father of four, H.L. immediately made a connection with Patti and her heart-filled cause. Patti's mission originated from a mother's love and compassion for her children and has spread into a wide-scale national effort. Her son, Sergeant Brandon Varn, was sent to Iraq and has since returned home after completing his mission. And now Patti's youngest son, Bretton Varn, has been deployed to Iraq to serve the call of duty for our country.

Through their conversation, Patti told H.L. about Holiday for Heroes, a Soldiers' Angels program that reaches out to deployed soldiers during the holidays. The goal for this program is to deliver a gift and a personal holiday message into the hands of the 140,000 troops fighting overseas this December. H.L. decided that Prudent Publishing should be apart of this effort to spread some holiday cheer to the soldiers. So, on behalf of The Gallery Collection and Prudent Publishing, he offered Soldiers' Angels a donation of 280,000 cards; a personalized card for the 140,000 soldiers in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan and a blank card to write home.

But it didn't stop here. Patti also informed H.L. of Project Valour-IT, which provides voice-controlled and adaptive laptops to wounded military personnel recovering from hand injuries and other severe trauma. So Prudent Publishing donated enough funding for Soldiers' Angels to purchase and distribute three of these specialized laptops.

Put in simple terms, these donations are simple acts of goodwill. Being a publisher of greeting cards, Prudent Publishing knows the importance of sending and receiving personalized messages to and from your family and friends during the holidays. Such communication can be incredibly important to the young men and women risking their lives on a daily basis, some of whom are only teenagers. Our efforts are for the soldiers are to express love and gratitude for the men and women who will be spending the holiday season thousands of miles away from home this year.

To find out more about Patti Patton-Bader, Soldiers' Angels, and the organization's numerous military support programs, please visit http://www.soldiersangels.org.