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Help send all our overseas troops a Christmas card this year

Tara Jeffrey Melissa Chong is calling on the community to help spread some holiday support to Canada’s Armed Forces.
XmasCards
Melissa Chong with some of the Christmas cards Sarnians can send to Canadian Forces personnel this holiday season. Troy Shantz

Tara Jeffrey

Melissa Chong is calling on the community to help spread some holiday support to Canada’s Armed Forces.

“It was actually my dad’s idea,” Chong said of her father, Bill, of Haines Frontier Printing, where she’s taking over the family business.

“He thought it would be a neat idea to run some Christmas cards, then send them to the soldiers overseas.”

They’ve teamed up with a Royal Canadian Legion member, Ron Prior, and a pair of local photographers, George Rosema and Lou Sprenger, and printed 7,000 holiday cards — in hopes each one will be penned with a personal message.

“Our goal is to get all the cards out into the community and have them back to the Legion by the end of the month, so we have enough time to get them to the bases to be sent overseas,” said Chong, noting the cards will also be distributed at upcoming Sarnia Legionnaires hockey games.

She’s hoping teachers, families -- anyone and everyone -- will pick one up and leave a message.

“It’s nice when a community gets excited about a little project or campaign,” she said. “And it’s really simple -- there’s no financial obligation.

“It’s also important to have that conversation with the younger generation of why we should remember who is fighting for us.”

The cards feature five local winter scenes, including the Children’s Animal Farm, the Blue Water Bridge and the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts.

“There are 3,600 active members of the armed forces overseas right now, so our goal is to send one to each member, maybe even two.”

Cards can be picked up at Haines Frontier Printing, 320 Talfourd St., and should be returned to the Sarnia Legion, 286 Front St., N, by Oct. 2.


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