Cheerios Send Cheer

A few days ago I wrote a post about how Cheerios is doing something pretty extraordinary for military families.  The Cheerios Send Cheer campaign really touches my heart, as it is something everyone can do, and it couldn’t be easier.  Not all of us are lucky enough to have our whole family home during the holidays, and for those, it can be a very lonely time.

I was anxious to find the specially marked box of Cheerios at Walmart, so that I could share this experience with my daughter, and help to spread the word about the Send Cheer campaign.  I went to Walmart a few nights ago, but unfortunately they didn’t have the Send Cheer boxes on display.  I made another trip to Walmart today, and talked to a manager, but was informed that those cheerios wouldn’t be arriving until sometimes next week.   I was really sad that they weren’t at the store yet.

I was, however, able to find them at another store {thank goodness!}.  I wanted to experience the send cheer postcards for myself, to share with you.

The boxes are easy to identify – just look for the ones with the cutout postcard on the front:

I was also pleased to see that for each postcard received by November 30, 2012 {from a participating box}, Cheerios will donate $1.00 to the USO.  I think that is pretty awesome!

I cut out the postcard from the Cheerios box, and asked my daughter to decorate it, and write a short message.  I was very proud of the patriotic theme she used to create her postcard:

Although we haven’t sent baked goodies yet, we  plan on preparing care/goody baskets to send to our troops, and an extra special one for my nephew.  My daughter and I are quite the bakers (if I do say so myself), so I know she will help me with the baking.  I think as a family, we will assemble the care packages together.  It really has an impact on kids when they are directly involved.

I imagine it is the high point of their days when they receive something special like that, from someone they don’t even know.  It is so important to let them know we care, and that we hold them close to our hearts.  One thing we are thinking about making are Cheerios Cereal Cut-outs (recipe on the Cheerios website), just like the ones above, but in red, white and blue.

Do you send care packages to our troops?  Have you looked for the specially marked Cheerios for the the Cheerios sendCheer Campaign yet?  I would love to hear about your experience!  Also, if you could please tweet this for me, to help spread the word about this wonderful program, I would appreciate it!  You can use this tweet:

Look for special Cheerios boxes to #sendcheer to our military families! @GeneralMills & @Walmart @EightyMPHMom #CBias http://tinyurl.com/boaf4s4

You can also follow Cheerios on Facebook and Walmart on Twitter!

*This post has been compensated as part of a sponsored charitable opportunity for Collective Bias. All stories herein are my own.