It’s been said that home is where the heart is. Nothing brings a touch of home to someone far away from family and friends like a card. For the fifth year in a row, the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes are giving everyone an opportunity to send a touch of home this holiday season to members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families through the 2011 Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

From now until December 9, the public is invited to send holiday cards that contain messages of cheer and appreciation. The Red Cross and Pitney Bowes will then screen the cards for hazardous materials, sort and package the cards, and deliver them to military bases and hospitals, veteran’s hospitals and other locations during the holidays.

Sam Kille served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1990 to 2003. He is now the Regional Director of Communications for the Red Cross in Greater New York. Kille knows what it means to get mail when you are serving your country far from home.

“It’s hard to describe what it means to get a letter from home,” he said. “And it didn’t matter who the letter was from. Somehow, mail was a validation that what I was doing was important and recognized.” You can read more on his blog, “Changing Lives, The Storybook.”

The Holiday Mail For Heroes post office box is open and ready to receive cards. Please send all mail to:
Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Please observe the following guidelines to ensure your card goes through the review process quickly:

* Only cards are being accepted. Do not send letters.
* All cards should be postmarked no later than Friday, December 9, 2011. Please be sure to affix adequate postage.
* Ensure that all cards are signed.
* Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member.” Cards addressed to specific individuals cannot be delivered through this program.
* Do not include email or home addresses on the cards, as the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships.
* Do not include inserts of any kind, including photos, as these items will be removed during the reviewing process.
* Please do not send cards with glitter.
* Participants should limit the number of cards they submit to 25 from any one person or 50 from any one class or group. If you are mailing a large quantity, please bundle the cards and place them in large mailing envelopes. Each card does not need its own envelope, as envelopes will be removed from all cards before distribution.

Additional ways to become involved with the campaign include connecting with fellow card senders through Facebook at www.facebook.com/redcross and Twitter at www.twitter.com/redcross using the hashtag #holidaymail.

For more information and card requirements, please visit www.redcross.org/holidaymail.

And, we want to give a warm welcome to our brand new clubs this year: Carpinteria, Templeton and Mission Prep.

We also have a new staff member based out of our San Luis Obispo office who we would like to introduce you to- Casey Weiss.  She is the new Community Services Coordinator and she will be supporting the clubs in the northern section of the Central Coast Region.  Speaking of the Central Coast Region, for those of you who don’t know, the Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County Chapters are working more closely than ever before as the American Red Cross, Central Coast Region. This means that you will have monthly calls with clubs from all over our region and will be working together to contribute to the same wonderful cause: helping people prevent, prepare for and respond to disasters. We appreciate all that you do and are extremely fortunate to have so many young people continue to come back year after year in support of the Red Cross.

We are going to have a great year!!!

The child who received the history-making measles vaccination was one of 3.5 million immunized in Mozambique this May. The immunization campaign was sponsored by the American Red Cross and the Measles Initiative’s four other founding partners – the United Nations Foundation, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, and World Health Organization.

Looking ahead to its second decade, the Measles Initiative will focus on achieving a series of interim targets toward the eventual eradication of measles. The first of these milestones will be to reduce measles mortality by 95 percent by 2015 (compared to 2000). The Measles Initiative estimates it will need approximately $212 million between 2012 and 2015 to reach the targets.

Listen to the audio clip and tell us what you think about International Humanitarian Law.

The annual San Marcos Red Cross Club's Teacher vs. Student basketball fundraiser brought in over $1000! Do you have pictures or success stories from your Club? Post it TODAY!

The process of creating a design was not difficult but raising money to pay for the shirts was a tough task.  They did not know where to begin with their plans so they did what they are best at; holding bake sales. The club was able to fundraise money from bake sales and each member donated a few dollars to personalize their shirts.

The end result is a new look, direction, and motivation for the San Marcos Red Cross Club. They plan to be even more successful in their efforts to help the Santa Barbara community and beyond. Each member will now proudly represent the Red Cross and San Marcos High School on Friday April 22nd, 2011 at the Teachers vs. Seniors Basketball Game.

The San Marcos team hopes that other clubs will be motivated to do something as a club that not only shows Red Cross pride but also the effort it takes to help the community.

The San Marcos team poses with their new Red Cross look!

Good luck to all the Red Cross Clubs in their fundraisers and other events!

- Manpreet Kaur

How To Hold Elections

1. Promote the date of elections at least 1 month in advance so all interested students are in attendance on election day!
2. Allow candidates to present a short speech explaining how they will fulfill the responsibilities of the officer position.
3. Allow group to vote anonymously.  Tally of votes should not be made public.
4. Announce the winners!
5. Record contact information on Annual Club Election Form.  One copy goes to Advisor (lward@sbredcross.org) & one copy stays with Club.

You’re Not Done Yet…

New Officer should be your sidekick for the remainder of the school year. Outgoing officers should mentor new officers in meeting planning and facilitation. New Officers are not an excuse for outgoing Officers to not attend meetings! This is an opportunity to build a strong core of leadership for next year.

Explain your weekly duties and review any forms etc. that are your responsibility.

Encourage new Officers to arrange an Officer’s meeting before the end of the school year to make plans for next year. Outgoing Officers should be in attendance to provide guidance.

The bake sale is on Tuesday, March 22, from 5-7 pm in front of the Trader Joe’s in Calle Real. We’ll be selling a variety of sweets for donations of $2. It would be great if other Red Cross club members from across the county could drop by.

We also created an informational flyer about the crisis and what the Red Cross has been doing in response, and we’ll be handing this flyer out at our bake sale. I uploaded it to the blog as well in case any other clubs would like to use it.

This is the flyer:

Updated Red Cross Informational Flyer for Japan

Thanks and I hope to see you at the bake sale!

- Connie W.

UPDATE: 3/22/2011: We had our bake sale today and it was a huge success! We ended up raising $311 for Japan. Special thanks to Kaleena for helping us bake, set up the table, and run the table.

1) At school we will be placing donation jars in all of the English classrooms, because everybody takes an English class. We decided not to have a class competition, however that is always an option.  The jars are just old coffee cans with labels on them.  We will also be placing some in the cafeteria.

2) Our school does not allow us to have bake sales, so instead we will be having one at our local Farmer’s Market.  Last year we had a booth for Haiti Relief, however we were not selling anything.  This year everyone is going to bring sweets to sell.  I will also have a donation jar and information about the disaster available.

3) We’re getting local businesses involved.  Many of the members of our club have parents who own salons or stores in the valley, so donation jars will be placed in the stores that are willing to participate.

4) We’re teaming up with another group at our school and having a car wash.  We’re pre-selling tickets to people planning on attending, and then …well, washing their cars next Friday.  We’re going to split the profits 50/50.

100% of what we make will be going to Japan.  Our goal is to reach $500!

I hope this initiates some fundraisers or inspires something,

Best of luck to all of you!

-Suvra M.