Luverne’s “Love the Light” holiday display at the city park included a call to action for the community to send greetings to Rock County men and women serving in the military.
The Rock County Star Herald’s display featured a photograph of a soldier reading mail, and it included a drop box for community members to enclose a greeting.
Since Winterfest weekend early in December, more than 600 greetings have been mailed to service men and women all over the globe.
Most were sent to Military Missions to be added to nearly 8,000 packets they send around the world to deployed service personnel.
Some families provided addresses of their loved ones stationed at military bases in the country and overseas.
These addresses received copies of the Star Herald, children’s colored Santa pictures that were entered in the Star Herald coloring contest, and dozens of greeting cards by local students and residents.
“As we were putting together the packets for the deployed Rock County service personnel, I couldn’t help but visualize in my mind their reactions as they open the packets from Luverne,” said Star Herald general manager Rick Peterson, who came up with the holiday greeting idea.
One servicewoman, Emmy Glaze, reached out through the Star Herald’s Facebook page.
"Thank you to Rock County Star Herald for sending over letters and cards to those that are currently deployed,” she posted, along with a photograph of herself with the Star Herald.
“I can’t wait to subscribe to the newspaper to stay connected with Luverne. People are truly amazing and love seeing the support that my home town shows."
Her post generated comments from others who received mail.
“This was so special for me,” wrote Madi Reisdorfer.
“I got letters from the community while I was at basic. It was very heartwarming knowing people from back home were thinking about me. … Very amazing thing to do.”