Hearts For Heroes

How it came into being:
by Laura Reid aka "River"

In late October 2004, while watching a news story about our soldiers in Iraq who had recently passed away, they showed the faces of these wonderful men and women. I was overwhelmed with grief and deeply affected by the tremendous sacrifice our troops and their families are making for us all. It was in that moment, I wanted to give something to our troops. My idea was a small heart. Something our soldiers could put in their pocket or to use as a daily reminder that they are loved, appreciated and to thank them so much for their service to our Country. Knowing I certainly wasn’t the only one who felt like this, my idea grew as a project idea that I presented to a small group of Polymer Clay Artists friends online.

The group rallied around the idea as a project dear to their own hearts. One of the group had a relative in Camp Lejeune, NC and hooked us up with a source to mail our hearts too. These hearts went out to those about to be deployed. There and then the project took flight.

The Present:

The group of polymer clay artists for the Hearts for Heroes Project has grown substantially. We have organized ourselves, not as a non-profit organization, nor an “official” volunteer group, but as many people doing something we really want to do. Our kindredship is in the act of love and giving, to show support for our troops. We make and send out hearts at our own expense and want nothing in return.

From single requests to larger requests, as the names and address's of the deployed have come to us, our hearts are sent out.

To Make a Request:

For single requests: If you have a loved one who is deployed overseas and you would like us to send a heart to them, or if you would like us to send you one, so you can put it into your letter or package, just email us.

(7-12-05 Due to the overwhelming amount of requests daily, we no longer can afford the postage ourselves. If single heart requesters wouldn't mind sending in .90 in postage stamps, it would help us out so much. Thank you! )

For larger requests: Please email us with the number of hearts you would want, name of the contact person who will be receiving the hearts and their FPO or APO address.

(For larger requests, we can calculate how much postage will be for us to send to you and let you know, just email us! Thank you! :))

We are remembering our Veterans of Foreign Wars as well in this project. Especially our Viet Nam Veterans. :) As a group we work to fulfill larger requests. As individuals of the Hearts for Heroes Project idea, we hand out hearts to our local VFW’s.