Meet Our September Granite Stater of the Month
One holiday season years ago, our September Granite Stater of the Month, Laura Landerman-Garber of Hollis, N.H. read a story in a magazine about the importance of remembering service members stationed away from home during the holidays. So during a holiday dinner, she set out cards and told her family and guests that she would start serving turkey dinner after they each wrote a card to a service member. This tradition continued and grew last year when a family friend was stationed on an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt — inspiring Laura to try to send a card to each member of the crew, which totaled 5,000 cards.
To accomplish this task, Laura mobilized her community. She reached out to churches, synagogues, scout troops, and schools. She also talked to the local media and public officials. Because her community stepped up, Laura far exceeded her initial goal of sending 5,000 cards, and ultimately collected 17,000 cards for members of the Navy in just six weeks.
As Laura says, New Hampshire may be small in size, but we are mighty in heart.
Laura is continuing her mission to honor our heroes serving in the armed forces, and says she draws particular inspiration to carry on her tradition after meeting a Vietnam War veteran who described a card he had framed on the wall of his house, written to him by a boy he has never met.
This year, Laura has formed a nonprofit organization to help with the postage and has expanded her goals — she aims to collect a total of 25,000 cards, 5,000 for members of each branch of our military. Already, Laura has said the outpouring of support from all across New Hampshire has been incredible, reinforcing that from preschoolers to seniors, the people of New Hampshire exhibit a remarkable generosity of heart and spirit. Laura is confident that this year, she’ll once again meet her goal.
For her dedication to our service members and for her work to bring Granite Starters together, I’m proud of to recognize Laura as our September Granite Stater of the Month.
If you’d like to nominate an exceptional Granite Stater to be recognized as a Granite Stater of the Month, you can visit my website and fill out the form here.
