Most teenagers who have free time on their hands choose to play video games, check out Facebook or shoot some hoops for fun.

Sarah McCormick isn’t like most teens. The Hudson Bend Middle School eighth-grader devoted her free time for three days to designing 230 Valentine’s Day cards to send to U.S. troops as part of an Operation Write Home effort.
“I would make them every spare second I had,” Sarah said. “It was fun, but it was kind of challenging because none of [my cards] are the same.”
Using card stock, heart stamps, markers and pipe cleaners, she created decorative, unique Valentine’s Day cards for U.S. soldiers in all branches of service. She left the inside of the cards blank so troops serving overseas could write messages to their loved ones back home.
“I hope that they will be excited because they get to send notes home to their family members,” Sarah said. I can’t imagine that they would have stuff over there to make cards. They would have to e-mail” Valentines if they didn’t have these cards to send.
Operation Write Home cards have been deployed to service members in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Kosovo, Bahrain, Serbia, Djibouti, South Korea, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan as well as to those stationed on ships at sea.
Sarah’s one-woman, card-making operation consumed much of her time in those three days as well as most of the flat spaces in her family’s living room and on their kitchen table. Her family ate meals surrounded by hundreds of pink and red Valentine’s cards, but she protected them all from stray pieces of pasta and cereal.
“She just kept making them. They were all over the place,” said Cori McCormick, Sarah’s mother.
When she reached the deadline to mail the cards off, Sarah said she was shocked by how many she had designed.
“I was surprised by how many I made because I wasn’t keeping track,” Sarah said. “I didn’t really have a specific goal. I knew I wanted to make a lot because there’s a lot of soldiers.”
Her grandfather served in World War II, and she empathizes with several of her friends who have brothers and sisters who are stationed overseas.
“[My friends] get all excited when they get an e-mail. They don’t get to communicate that often. It’s restricted as to what they can talk about and how often,” she said.
Her interest in supporting troops also stems from writing thank you letters at school to send via Operation Independence.
“I wanted to do some more [projects] because I really like doing that,” she said.
Sarah earned 20 community service hours through Lonestar Youth Leadership Council, which is a group of student leaders throughout Texas, and she plans to make more in future for other holidays, such as St. Patrick’s Day.
She plans to scout the web site at www.operationwritehome.org for future service opportunities and also to invite some of her friends to attend card-making parties.
“I’m definitely going to start earlier next time so I can have a week or two weeks and make a lot more,” Sarah said, adding that she will use other craft items such as googly eyes to vary her designs.
A self-motivated but selfless drive fuels the competitive cheerleader and club volleyball player to push herself to help others even more. She is a National Junior Honor Society and Student Council member.
“While you are making them you know that you are helping somebody and that’s really awesome and really cool, but before you start making them you can be like, ‘I’m going to beat [my record of]how many cards I made last time and I’m going to make even more,’” she said.
Her giving spirit extends to other service projects in which she has interacted with community members who may not have the same comforts of living.
“When you do the other service projects that I’ve done it’s really rewarding because you actually go to the people … and they are just really appreciative when you deliver stuff,” she said.
Although Sarah said she was surprised by how many Valentine’s Day cards she turned out, her mother said the project was just one of many activities she does that speaks volumes about her character and passion for giving.
“She has a really amazing stamina and hard work ethic, so at the end of it we weren’t really all that surprised because that’s just the kind of person she is,” Cori McCormick said.