Volunteer Kansas looks to amass holiday cards, care packages for deployed service members

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - With the help of Kansans, Volunteer Kansas is looking to send care packages and signed or homemade holiday cards to service members who will spend their 2021 holiday season protecting and serving the nation overseas.

With about 450,000 military service members overseas and only about half of them ever receiving a care package, Volunteer Kansas said it has teamed up with National Catastrophe Restoration, Inc. and Audacy, Inc. to flood Kansas service members with signed holiday cards in 2021, handmade or store-bought.

“Each year, through our Presents in a Package event, we send care packages full of donated goodies to our troops to show them they are being thought of while they are away from their friends and family members at home. Volunteers get together to sort, pack and address the care packages. Last year, because of COVID, we sadly canceled the event, so this year we decided that rather than canceling again, we would modify it. We won’t be having the packing event, but we will collect the cards and make sure they are sent to all those heroes this year,” said Nola Brown, executive director of Volunteer Kansas.

To participate, Volunteer Kansas said names and addresses of deployed Kansas military personnel can be emailed to presentsinapackage@gmail.com to be added to the list. Greeting cards to be sent overseas should be mailed to Volunteer Kansas at PO Box 781598, Wichita, KS 67278, or dropped off at NCRI at 8447 E 35th St. N, Wichita.

The organization said a second drop-off location will be announced on Volunteer Kansas’s Facebook page.

When all cards to be sent overseas are received by Volunteer Kansas, the organization said it will divide them between the names and addresses submitted, pack them in boxes and send them out.

Volunteer Kansas said the cost to send a box via U.S. Postal Service has increased to $21.85 in 2021. Those that wish to contribute to postage fees can do so through the Volunteer Kansas Facebook page or by sending a check made out to Volunteer Kansas to PO Box 781598, Wichita, KS 67278.

The deadline for cards, monetary donations, and names and addresses of deployed service members is Nov. 10.

“Making holiday cards could be a wonderful project for school classrooms, scouting troops, church groups, civic organizations, or families,” said Brown. “This is just another great way to volunteer, along with all the other opportunities listed on the Volunteer Kansas website. It is such a wonderful way for all of us to do something kind for those who serve and protect us.”

Brown also said she hopes to collect 2,000 more cards before the deadline.

For more information about Presents in a Package, call 316-260-9479.