Many thanks to all your readers for their support!

The official count came out to 181,612 cards that were delivered to Luke AFB on December 16th! We still have an additional 20,000 - 30,000 cards which we will be sending to VA hospitals.

Please pass along my sincerest gratitude to all involved.

Here is a link for the news story submitted to PR Newswire by Kodak.

Ten-year-old Stephen Goodman, a fifth-grader from Surprise, Arizona, wants to send a card next year to military personnel. Not to one platoon or to just one division, but to every actively deployed service member in the U.S. military.

Stephen said he thought of the idea while spending the summer with his grandparents in Phoenix. “My grandpa went to Vietnam and didn't get any cards, and he felt forgotten,” he says.

Stephen started locally, creating and hand delivering 218 Fourth of July cards for patients at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix. The feedback was so positive that Stephen started thinking, "Why not send one to everyone deployed?" He began paying attention to news reports. From somewhere, he gleaned the number of overseas troops to be around 180,000. “I was really taken aback when he said he wanted to do one for all the troops,” said Stephen's father, Steven. “I explained to him it was a big project, and because of what his intentions were, he would have to carry it out.”

Each card is handmade, using “construction paper and scissor designs and markers and stickers and my imagination and that's it,” says Stephen. The entire family pitches in. So far, they've made about 15,000 cards.

Vice President Joe Biden happened to hear Stephen's story while traveling through Phoenix last August. Stephen got his own Thank You in the mail. “It just said thank you for what I'm doing, the soldiers will appreciate it,” he remembers. The letter made Stephen's summer. “It made me feel very excited to know that the vice president sent me something,” he says.

Read Vice President Biden's letter to Stephen.

When all 180,000 cards are done, the Goodmans plan to take them to Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona, where they will be delivered overseas all at once to make sure no soldier is overlooked.
- Original story by Amy B. Wang, writer for The Arizona Republic

Click here to watch the MyFoxArizona story about Stephen.
(Stephen's story appears after the ad.)

Paper Creations magazine is teaming up with Bazzill Basics Paper to help Stephen realize his goal. It is our hope that our generous readers will continue to send cards until this goal is reached.