I often see posts here about writing and receiving personal letters. There is a segment of our society that is in need of receiving written letters. Our adult son was in jail last year for 6 months on a marijuana sales charge. During that time, his mom and I became aware of how few inmates get any kind of communication with the outside world. Chris told us that he was the only one out of a group of 20 plus that he knew who received a letter or card regularly. Most inmates never receive any mail at all. This is for a variety of reasons with apathy being the leader. Illiteracy among the family and friends is another. Regardless of our personal feeling about these people, they have been found guilty of their crimes, sentenced and are serving their time. Think of the positive impact that can be made with the written word. The impact on the writer will be even greater.

The other needy area is our military, both those serving overseas and nationally. Again, there are too many of these brave people who never hear an encouraging or uplifting word from "the world." It is horrible to keep hearing "mail call" and be the one not receiving any mail.

There are many programs and opportunities to correspond with the people I mentioned above. This can be done safely and even anonymously. Just do a "Google" for such opportunities in your area, contact your local church or court for information on programs. By the way, this makes a great activity for a family with children and/grandchildren. My wife and I do it and so do many of our friends and neighbors. I just thought the members of this community would like to know of the need too. What a great way to put all those pens and ink to use! Thanks. /Craig

Hear, hear!

Let me add that no matter what your faith (or lack thereof), there is some sort of prisoner correspondence program for you. Catholic, protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist... even the American Atheist Society and the Church of Satan will put you in touch with inmates to correspond with. (not that I'm endorsing yadda yadda, I'm just saying the variety of avenues for getting a pen-pal on the inside is practically endless). If you play chess, you can get into chess-by-mail games, if you're in AA or NA, both have opportunities to carry the message by mail with an inmate. You don't have to investigate much before finding an opportunity for correspondence that can be meaningful.

Sorry for the "me too" post, but thanks for calling attention to this.

I'd second military personnel!

Kurt

Funny, I was just reminiscing this morning about a correspondence I used to have with an inmate back when I was in college. I don't even know how it started - how I got his address. It was very in-depth and confidential. It was nice to be able to talk to someone completely outside of your situation. He used to intricately doodle all over the envelopes and I would get two to three letters a week.

It only broke off because "something" slipped. I'd never given him my number, but I started getting collect calls from the prison - not from him - I don't know if someone got a hold of my information and did some research, or what. The whole thing made me uncomfortable. We argued about it and lost contact. It's really too bad because I liked talking to him.

With some better safeguards, I might consider such a thing again.

I have thought a few times of writing to military personnel, and have googled it and spent a long time feeding through the links -- but I couldn't find any sites that were geared to letters and not to packages. Also, I found you had to write to "Dear serviceperson" instead of finding an individual, which seems a little too impersonal to me.

But I'm up for the idea.

If anyone has recommendations for ways to write to military personnel, I'd love to hear them.

You might check with a local USO, if there is one in the area (should there not be one near Newport?). Back in the 20th Century, I used to hang at the USO in San Diego before my wife got there, and they had a program to write letters to deployed sailors (mostly Navy in San Diego -- go figure). If you attend church, your church might have a program; if not, and you have no principle against it, contact local churches and query whether they do have such a program.

Just a few ideas from a retired Navy vet.

Donnie

Donnie, your tips from a retired Navy vet are most appreciated! I'll check with my synagogue and look into the USO. Thanks!

I am excited that this old thread was revived. I know that most houses of worship have lists of loved ones serving our country and welcome additonal cards and letters to the servicemen. I remember that mail addressed to "Any Serviceperson" is no longer accepted due to security reasons. Here is a link to one organization that seems to be very good at getting mail to the troops. Letters From Home.

Here is a another resource site: America Supports You.

If you know of a local man or woman who is serving, just ask their family for some of their comrades names to send mail to. As a Navy Vet myself, I cannot over emphasize the positive impact letters and cards have on the lives of our service people. Thanks for asking how you can be involved. Write on! /Craig

Craig - thank you!

Many years ago, I sat next to prison chaplain at a fund raising banquet, and, as a consequence of our dinner conversation, I ended up meeting him at the old (19th century!) Alexandria, VA City Jail a few days later to meet a prisoner. I tutored that prisoner for the next six months. It was a worthwhile experience. These folk definitely need someone other than guards and other inmates to talk to, so Craig's idea is a good one.

Thanks for an inspirational thread. Since I saw it yesterday, I started to look for addresses to write to Canadian prisoners, but I couldn't find any in the few minutes I looked. Instead, I wrote 2 letters to service people and 3 to addresses I got from the Amnesty International site expressing concern about conditions and torture.

Thanks for getting me off my ass.

Just an update --

I've pored through a lot of websites and sent a bunch of emails (no luck yet with my own temple congregation), and had the best and most immediate luck with
http://www.anysoldier.com/index.cfm

You don't have to pay any fees (though I made a donation) and you don't have to send packages. You can get direct addresses immediately, though you do send to one representative and then say "Attn: Any Soldier."

So I've just written my first letter to a soldier overseas. I'll keep posting here if I find any other fruitful options.

Craig, thanks again for the idea. I hope other folks will be inspired like I was. I'm not particularly political, and don't even support the war (oops! I said it!) but I do support our troops and it's great to be able to tell them so.

I am so happy that you and others have started searching out way to write to the service people. One of the strange phenomenas I have seen is how public interest in being involved seems to diminish over a period of time. As these wars wear on, it is important to keep up our support of those serving us. Please also remember those who are also serving stateside and in non-combat zones. They deserve and need our mail just as much. /Craig

I thought I would add a note about a really neat event that happened today. Last year, our church assembled and shipped care packages to some of our service people in Irag. They were sent to one of our members who is on active duty there and he passed out the boxes of personal items and goodies that are hard to come by there. Over the past year, many of us corresponded by mail with that group. Today, one of those men was in our worship services and presented our congregation with an American flag that flew over their headquarters there. He also told of the impact our reaching out made on the people serving there. The wet eyes and tissues among us this morning told of how he and his comrades affect us. Just needed to share. /Craig