A handwritten thank you card and a clean pair of socks are some of the treasured gifts veterans and deployed service members will receive from a Christmas Day care-packaging event in the Virginia suburbs.

Volunteers with America’s Adopt a Soldier gathered Wednesday at American Legion Post 176 in Springfield to deliver hundreds of thousands of letters to former and active-duty soldiers, sailors and airmen in an effort for everyday citizens to share their appreciation for their work in the armed forces.

Service members abroad will also receive packages with snacks, hygiene products and other goodies to serve as stocking stuffers for their holidays away from home.

The campaign, now in its 14th year, was started by Adopt a Solider’s founder Mary Keeser, a former Army officer who said even a modest thank you card leaves a large impression on the veterans who receive them.

“Just to do something to tell our service members that we care, they carry around with it,” Ms. Keeser said. “The batteries go out in their device, but the batteries don’t go out on a pencil, and it really means a lot to them to have that ‘hug from home’ to say they’re not forgotten.”

Ms. Keeser said the organization solicits letters from around the country beginning in October with a goal of sending 300,000 letters, which comes out to about five each for every veteran and service member.

Ms. Keeser said the letters come nationwide from schools, neighborhoods, recreation centers, synagogues and other places of worship.

The items in the care packages all come from donations, Ms. Keeser said, which they gather through community drives during the holiday season as well.

Adopt a Soldier also had a section for volunteers to drop off contributions to an ongoing toy drive.

Ms. Keeser said drop-off bins are also set up at Walter Reed Children’s Center and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and will be given to the children of military members at both facilities.

Wednesday’s packing event did have a special guest, or guests, in attendance — the entire East Carolina University football team. The Pirates are in town to face off Saturday against intrastate rival North Carolina State for the Military Bowl in Annapolis.

Kicker Andrew Conrad, a junior on the team and its chosen spokesman, said the players helped unload all the supplies from all the trucks and spread them out on the table so other volunteers can start packing them.

Mr. Conrad said he knows how much the letters mean to service members. His two grandfathers each served, one in the Army and one in the Navy.  

“Community service on Christmas, it’s a first for me, but it’s been a great experience,” he said.

It’s the second year of giving back for Jackie Madden, a Vienna resident who comes out on Christmas Day to honor her military friends — one a Navy SEAL, one a rear admiral and another an F-18 pilot.

Ms. Madden said her personal Christmas events take place in the morning, so she spends the afternoon working with Adopt a Soldier volunteers.

She spent time filing up care packages with Oreo cookies, gummy bears and flavored drink mixes and also sorting through the thousands of letters that are spread out on several tables.

Ms. Madden said even small items in care packages go a long way.

She said back when her rear admiral friend was still a captain and deployed near Iraq, she sent her magnets to stick around the ship. Another friend was aboard the USS Eisenhower years ago and wanted something that smelled nice because, as Ms. Madden said, the ship had its own funky smell.

To Ms. Keeser, the organizer who was darting around the American Legion’s banquet hall to coordinate the day’s event, she said she still holds the event on Christmas because of the images it creates.

She recalled one year where some 4- or 5-year-old children came to the venue in their Christmas pajamas, and had as much enthusiasm as the other volunteers.

“They were packing a care package to one of our deployed service carriers to give back. And that’s what you see here today, is those giving back during the holiday season. How better a feeling is it than that?” Ms. Keeser said.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.