East Carolinian

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A campaign has begun to spread throughout college campuses throughout the United States entitled "Dear American Soldier," geared to allow college students to thank American soldiers fighting overseas.

"Dear American Soldier," which began Christmas morning, strives to get every American to send one e-mail to an American soldier. The campaign also encourages students to write letters of appreciation to families of fallen soldiers.

The idea for this campaign was sparked when independent filmmaker Aaron Mighty, producer of Dear American Soldier, began the idea as a documentary called, An American Soldier. This documentary quickly led to the idea of the letter writing campaign that has just recently begun to spread to the college scene.

Alex Dougal agreed to work with Mighty. Dougal is in charge of media relations on behalf of Dear American Soldier. On Christmas Eve, Dougal sent press releases to countless national newspapers. These press releases encouraged Americans to take a few minutes on Christmas morning to write a simple thank you to a soldier.

The original goal was to collect 1,000 e-mails over a month's time. On Christmas morning they received over 500 e-mails surpassing their expectations. The new goal has been raised to top 5,000 over two months time.

"We feel that college students have really stepped up to take time out of their day to thank these soldiers. Their simple letters are and will continue to be greatly appreciated," said Dougal.

The e-mails will be collected over the course of the next two months. Once received to the Dear American Soldier database, letters will take five to seven days to reach the hands of soldiers overseas.

Dougal has collected over 300 names and addresses of soldiers over seas from national newspapers. Dougal and Mighty plan to collaborate with many other letter-writing organizations from all over the country.

"Every letter that is sent is greatly appreciated. We have to let the troops know that the whole country is behind them," Dougal said.

With the upcoming elections in Iraq thousands upon thousands more troops are being sent overseas. They will be over there for at least six months or longer.

"These men and women are away from their families, and away from their friends. If one e-mail can make a difference I think America owes it them," Dougal said.

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.

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