Stockings Update and News

We are truly on our way with the Holiday Stockings project! Thank you...thank you! We have commitments for just over 2,000 stockings!! This is wonderful news.

I also wanted to clear up some questions about the stockings project that we have been getting emails about.

Before I get to that we have to send a HUGE thank you to Spring-Ford Middle School in Royersford, Pa! The staff there is sponsoring a Dress Down Day to help raise some money to cover the postage for mailing the stockings. How cool is that?? Can we get some other schools to follow suit and do the same? Remember that postage is our largest expense by far. We spent several thousand dollars last month on postage!

Please let us know if your group or organization is doing something special to help with the Holiday Stockings. You can post it here or send us an email. We will gather all the ideas and add them on the site.

Most of the questions have been about sending the stockings. First, if you are just making stockings they must reach us by November 1st in order to get them filled and shipped. Second, if you are doing stockings from start to finish, which includes filling them, you can ship them to us if you are doing less than 25. If you make over 25 we will send you a unit name to ship them directly to the troops. You must send us your full name, mailing address, phone number and how many stockings you have made. We still must keep this information on file the same as for penpals and adoptions. We also need to keep track of who we assign so we can make sure all the troops get stockings. If you are shipping directly to the troops you must mail by November 14th to get them there on time.

You may make the stockings according to gender but you have to let us know how many of each you make if you are going to ship direct. We will have to give you a unit that has the correct number of male and female troops. You must also mark the stockings with a tag that says Male or Female so there is no confusion or embarrassment when they get distributed.

There are many great items that can be included in the stockings. Travel size toiletries, individual snacks, books, notepads, pens & pencils, decks of playing cards, yo-yos, small games, puzzles, socks, gloves, Shallyn sand scarves, hand sanitizer, hand lotion, chapsticks, rolled up tee-shirts, and pretty much anything that fits and would be useful.

Any stockings being mailed to us should be sent to:



Keystone Soldiers

PO Box 152

Fleetwood, Pa 19522-0152




If you are using DHL, FedEx Ground or UPS and need the street address please email us for that information. keystonemilitary@yahoo.com

Speaking of packages, our donations have finally outgrown my house! We have had to rent a storage area nearby. I hated to do this because it takes money away from the shipping funds to pay for it. It costs $85.45 per month to have the space to keep a table for packing and store the donations while waiting to ship. There is also no heat or electric there so as the weather gets colder the volunteers will be very cold while packing the boxes. If there is anyone in the Reading/Berks County area that could help us out with a free or less expensive space for our work we would be very grateful. Every penny we can save will help cover our shipping costs.

If you have any questions at all about the Holiday Stockings for Soldiers project please email us at the address above. If you have contacted us and have not received a response in 48 hours please email us again. I was out of town and had very limited access to a computer. As a result my mailbox filled up and bounced some emails.

As always thank you for your continued support for Keystone and for our troops!

~Lordzmom