Campus political organizations send cards to troops
The College Republicans approached the College Democrats about the event.
Published Dec. 3, 2010
Partisan politics were the last things on the minds of the Mizzou College Republicans and MU College Democrats as they worked together in support of American troops overseas Tuesday.
Members of the two groups came together to support the troops by encouraging students to sign Christmas cards outside the Student Center.
College Republicans Chairwoman Sophie Mashburn said the Republicans asked the College Democrats if they wanted to work together in purchasing Christmas cards for soldiers and table the cards outside for students to stop by and sign.
The event was a part of the Red Cross’ “Holiday Mail for Heroes Program,” which encourages people to send in Christmas cards for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq until Dec. 10, according to its website.
According to the Red Cross’ website, the “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program invites anyone to send in cards for Red Cross employees to deliver to soldiers, their families and veterans all around the world.
“The goal was to get Mizzou students involved in spreading Christmas cheer to our troops because they don’t get to be home with their families,” Mashburn said.
Mashburn said around 97 percent of the cards purchased by the College Republicans and Democrats were signed by MU students. She said they were only able to purchase 150 cards due to lack of funding and time.
Mashburn has set next year’s goal at 1,000 cards and plans on getting more publicity about the event ahead of time to increase student awareness of the opportunity.
“Because it was so freezing cold, it was really hard to catch people’s attention,” Mashburn said. “They were happy to do it.”
College Democrats Secretary Matt Tharp and Treasurer Greg Young helped Mashburn and worked together to set up the event and show students both organizations are supportive of American troops.
“It was really cool,” Tharp said. “Sophie went ahead and approached us to partner up with them a month or two ago. It was fun.”
Tharp said the College Democrats are looking forward to working with the College Republicans more in the future and next semester on charity events and other community services.
“That’s something I definitely want to do a lot more of,” Young said of working with the College Republicans. “It’s also just a good thing to do in general. We want to do something that helps our American military, which is something we both support.”