A girl writing for a good cause

And no, I do not mean writing on my blog.  Although you needn’t tell me that my daily blogging has been for the wellbeing and entertainment of my limited reader base.  I already know how much pleasure my readers get from my random musings and my silly sense of writing.

Today I got a call from something I decided to do on the night of my birthday.

I decided I wanted a worthy cause.

So I adopted a penpal.

Not just any penpal.  I wrote into Adopt A Platoon so I can get one from the military.

The premise of the organization is simple.  Thousands of strong and brave military men and women are deployed for lengthy periods of time to fight for our country.  Of these wonderful and strong people, many have no real family to speak of.  So while they are out experiencing some of the most hellish conditions or loneliest of periods of their lives, they have no one to write to or send them anything at all.  I can’t remember where I read about this organization, but the moment I knew their purpose I knew that I had to sign up.

You see, I’m sure that many of you remember my mentioning that my older brother is in the army.  When I read what the mission of the organization was, to get mail to our military platoons deployed overseas, I remembered the time when my older brother was in basic training.  He could not write often but when he did, he sent a note saying how we all needed to write to him more.  Training was strenuous and it was difficult.  The only thing anyone seemed to ever look forward to was mail call.  He told me that the best part was hearing your name called during that time.  It was so very disheartening if you didn’t.

You can imagine how much my mother cried when she learned that.

I remember writing to my older brother daily for several weeks after that.  I can’t remember what I would write about but I made it my mission to at least fill out a lovely notecard telling my brother something about my day or something to that effect.  He told me later that he always wished that I would write more in every letter but that he was grateful for how often I would write.  That every notecard was like a concise story and that everyone would always gather after mail call to share the news and stories they would have received.  He also told me that he especially liked the notecards because it was something lovely to look at, too.

I get teary eyed just remembering that time not 5 years ago.  So that Adopt A Platoon held a cause near and dear to my heart is an understatement.  I’ve always lobbied that letter writing is a lost art.  More people should send mail and this just seems like a perfect fit.  As I’m just one girl, I decided to start small and adopt one person to be my penpal.  It is encouraged that you write at least one letter a week and, if you wish to, send your person a care package with whatever goodies you would like.  While I may not have my mother’s talent when it comes to making care packages, I think I could do that justice.

After all, who doesn’t love to get mail?

So the call today was to verify my information and to let me know to expect an email from the organization with the information of my penpal.  I have not received it yet but am hoping that I will have it before the weekend.  I know that some people would argue that if the bombshell wanted a charitable organization that there were many I could have donated money to.  And I could have done that with Adopt A Platoon but for the cost of maybe a stamp or three a week, and some pretty penmanship, I can likely brighten the life of someone very far away.  And, if what my brother said was true about how when he was in training everyone would share news and mail with one another, it would likely affect a whole lot more people too.

What more could a girl ask for?