A new RSO on campus created Valentines Day cards sealed with a kiss to send to the troops overseas.
Chelsea Brandon of the FSU Military Support Group, which was formed last April, said this is the first year the RSO made the cards. She said the idea came from an article in Cosmopolitan Magazine, where someone would apply lipstick and kiss the letter/envelope. Students could also decorate the envelopes/letters with hearts and stickers.
The event was held in the IRC and all students were invited to participate.
“We thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing at Ferris and we had a pretty good turnout,” said Brandon.
Brandy VanDenbrook, a member of the FSU Military Support Group, said they sent out four giant envelopes to troops overseas; One for the Air Force, Marines, Navy and the Army.
“We generally send these types of things to the units of the people in our group, but if we don’t have any at that time then we will find addresses available online,” said VanDenbrook.
She said the group has done things like this in the past, such as making Christmas cards or Thanksgiving letters.
Halling said last semester the group teamed up with area elementary schools and had the kids write Christmas letters. Residence Halls Bond, Clark, Henderson and Puterbaugh also participated.
“That is where a majority of the letters came from for Christmas,” said Brandon.
With the Christmas cards, the same residence halls were involved as well.
VanDenbrook said other RSOs became interested in helping as well, including Alpha Sigma Tau giving them a stack of letters and a small group from the campus Christian group His House also provided letters.
Brandon said the group usually does get a response from the troops after sending letters, items, etc. She said at one time they received a unit badge from one of the units that received a care package from them.
“The messages written in the cards ranged from a simple encouraging sentence to almost a novel, it depended on who wrote the message,” said Brandon.
“The idea really seemed to take off with others and they wanted to help,” said VanDenbrook.
She added, “we’re hoping that this event will increase in size over the years.” n