We’ve all had family or friends in a nursing home and for some people it’s a wonderful experience with friends, activities and plenty to do. For many veterans in V.A. Nursing Homes it can be a tough road to hoe. Many of our veterans are alone and have very little contact with the outside world. In many cases family, if there is any left, are far away and the vet is out of sight and out of mind. Project D.E.F.T. was designed to help fill that void by providing our veterans with a Christmas card to show them we appreciate their sacrifice and their service.

The Project was the idea of Lynda Smith who, with her husband Daryl, coordinated the collection of cards and distributed these cards to veterans homes in California. At one point they were collecting over 33,000 cards in Kern County – 9,000 of those we collected here in Tehachapi.

Lynda and her husband are both retired, now living out of Kern County, and they’ve again consented to distribute the cards. We’ve narrowed the focus and, as last year, we will be the only collection point for the cards in Kern County. Last year we collected over 6,000 that were distributed to veteran homes in California.

Please note, there are certain requirements placed on us by the V.A. Nothing political, religious and no personal information other than your first name, if you’d like. Keep in mind these cards will be distributed by the facility and we have no idea of the religious or political affiliation of the veteran.

Another very important requirement is “no cards with glitter,” remember many of these veterans have wounds from their service or from surgeries and glitter would not be a welcome addition. As far as something to say in the cards a simple “thank you” or “thank you for your service” would be appropriate and very meaningful to a veteran whose only contact this Christmas might be your card!

Do not seal the envelope or put a stamp on it, that will be taken care of. The last day to collect cards is November 1 at Marty Pay Farmers Insurance, 212 W. F St., Tehachapi.

Please help us make sure we “Don’t Ever Forget Them.”