By Mary Etta Boesl

Wednesday, December 10, 2008 — Youth, strength and idealism took center stage at American Red Cross national headquarters as volunteers gathered to prepare holiday cards to send to wounded warriors, men and women on active duty, military families and veterans.

Seated at the worktable immediately to the right of First Lady Laura Bush was 11-year-old Tre Cox. Fifteen-year-old Mathew Oclander sat directly across the table from the First Lady. Each teenager was there because of his selfless contributions to the Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

Murray Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pitney Bowes, and Red Cross partner in the Holiday Mail for Heroes Program, spoke for everyone in the room when he singled out "people like Tre who say I care, I can."

Now in his second year of collecting cards from heroes, inspiration came when Tre Cox saw a Veterans Day parade at the VA Medical Center in his hometown of Marion, Indiana. "The parade was sad," Tre remembered, "because they didn't get to see their mothers or their families. So I thought I could send some cards."

And send cards he did. This year Tre collected more than 30,000 cards. He wrote a personal message on about 13,000 of them.

The Grant County Chapter of the American Red Cross mailed all of Tre's cards to the Pitney Bowes card collection center. Tre's cards are among the million messages on their way to military personnel, military families and veterans in more than 300 locations around the globe.

Mathew Oclander, at 15, has two Holiday Mail for Heroes programs under his belt. Last year his father, Lt. Col. David Oclander, was stationed in Iraq. Looking for comfort, Mathew spent December Saturday mornings at national headquarters preparing holiday cards for shipment.

After sorting, Mathew would fall asleep imagining those cards he had touched being trucked to the airport, flown to Baghdad, hauled to military installations, and, finally, handed one-by-one to servicemembers like his dad who could not be at home for the holidays.

Mathew and Tre were motivated by their youth, strength and idealism. The two harnessed those characteristics to contribute in a very concrete way. Because of their service, U.S. military are receiving holiday mail from across America recognizing the sacrifices being made day-in-and-day-out on our behalf.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.