Make a soldier your valentine again in '08
It's one thing to slap a yellow-ribbon magnet on the back of a car and claim to support American troops. It's quite another to inspire people to handcraft more than 40,000 Valentine's Day cards to send to those troops.
But that's what 16-year-old Amy Berger of Naperville did earlier this year.
After making a plea at a Naperville City Council meeting in January for card donations to her "Hearts for Heroes" project, local businesses teamed up with her, and the venture caught fire.
"I think people got into it because it's just something good to do," she said.
Soon, bins at the three Ginny's Hallmark stores in Naperville and the one at Naper Nuts & Sweets were overflowing with donations.
Pam Shields, who owns the Hallmark shops, said customers were dropping in just to buy cards for the project. Children also stopped by carrying bundles of cards, many addressed to "My Hero."
"The thing I really enjoyed about the Hearts for Heroes thing was the armloads of cards we got from children," she said. "The attraction of this project is that it is a personal act."
Berger was given a youth leadership award by the Aurora/Naperville Rotary Club for her project.
Dominique Martucci owns Naper Nuts & Sweets and organizes another project that recognizes troops serving abroad called "Operation Caramel Corn." She got in touch with Berger about adding the teen's donated cards to the boxes of caramel corn she sends to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The shocker was the quantity of letters, and to get out there and get that many meant she had to really push her cause and people really responded to her," Martucci said. "She's got a special place in my heart for what she's continuing to do."
That's right, after this holiday season is over, Berger is going at it again.
"The first time I did it was for my bat mitzvah and then I did it last year again on a bigger scale for my Sweet 16," she said. "This time I want to do it for no other reason other than the fact that there are still soldiers over there."