By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Ortonville– Haley Hicks is campaigning– not for political office, but for letters, and not to your politicians, but to those who serve in the military.

Her cause was initially prompted by an Honors English assignment, but grew from a desire to express appreciation to troops deployed overseas.

“I started the project at the beginning of the school year and now I’ve made it a goal to get a thousand letters,” said Hicks, a Brandon High School freshman, who was passing out patriotic note cards with “America the Beautiful” on the exterior and blank inside, at downtown businesses on Monday.

For her English project, she could have done any written piece, including a letter, an essay, or a story, but she chose to write letters and collect them from others in order to get out of her comfort zone, as well as honor the troops. Two years ago, she became involved with the Desert Angels after entering a VFW essay competition. Now she attends packing parties in which she assembles Miracle boxes to send to the troops, packed with non-perishable food as well as other needed supplies. While those may seem critical items to showing support, the most crucial object in the boxes are the cards and letters offering words of encouragement.

“The food goes away, but they can read the letter over and over again,” notes Haley’s mom, Amy.

In her letters, Hicks tells them she is a high schooler from a small town and thanks the troops for their service, saying she appreciates the sacrifice they are making for all the people back home.

She hopes that she receives a good response for her letter-writing campaign. Those who want to support Haley in her project and support the troops need only write a short letter and drop the messages off at The Citizen office, 12 South St., Ortonville. Hicks will collect them by May 20 and send them on to the troops in care packages.

“Tell a little about yourself and a simple thank you to whoever is reading it,” she said. “Just a couple paragraphs. The most important part of the package is the letter, it shows the soldier that there are a lot of people that appreciate what they are doing.”