We're all getting ready for the holiday season, the time for greeting cards ringing in the season.
A Quad City group of volunteers knows that military men and women serving overseas have very few options when it comes to giving cards to loved ones back home.
While several groups make sure the troops themselves get cards, "Cards for the Troops" makes sure they have cards to give.
That brought Suzanne Chevalier to the front door of Mary Sue Sippel's Quad City home.
"On behalf of Ascentra Credit Union and News 8 I'm here, Mary Sue, to give you $300 to 'Pay It Forward'," says Suzanne, handing over three crisp $100 bills.
Once a year, on Arsenal Island, hundreds of volunteers come together to take stamp to ink, then to paper. They are making cards for all kinds of occasions that are sent overseas for troops to send back home.
"So it gives them that touch back with their family and that's an important thing to help the soldiers and the service member feel that people remember them," says Suzanne.
But this thoughtful gesture is no easy thing to organize.
It takes Mary Sue eight months to set up the effort.
"It's just grown and grown and grown," says Mary Sue.
Each year in September, more than 250-volunteers come together to make the handmade cards to be distributed overseas. Some eight thousand cards are made each year using stamps made by various local artists.
The cards are truly individual pieces being sent to war zones and other locations where servicemen and women may not find a place to get holiday greetings or messages they can send back home for birthdays or other occasions.
"They are made from love from people that can spread their love back," says Mary Sue.
"It represents both sides: the family and the active duty so we're keeping people together and our community also," says Suzanne.
Over the past eight years, the group has sent out 37,000 cards.
And Mary Sue has gotten cards herself: letters of thanks from soldiers, sailors, and Marines overseas.
It's these messages that proves to Mary Sue what she already knows: this is a mission well accomplished.
"It's a two-fold thing: love going back and forth," says Suzanne.
"That's what she does."
You can find out more about the "Cards for the Troops" campaign by clicking onto their Facebook page.
And if you know of someone doing good deeds for the community, just nominate them for the "Pay It Forward" award by clicking here.