UVA Student writes thousands of letters to servicemen and women overseas

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - 2020 turned out to be tough for a lot of people, and that includes our servicemen and women deployed overseas. One University of Virginia student went the extra mile to make sure our troops felt appreciated.

Sometimes a simple thank you can go a long way, as a military daughter, Taylor Curro knows this to be true. “My dad is still in the Air Force and my mom’s retired. Every day, if I’m out and about shopping or whatnot, and I see someone in uniform I try to go out of my way to tell them thank you for their service because even that can just like make their day,” she said.

To show her appreciation Taylor decided to join in on a challenge in 2020, started by Operation Gratitude. “Just essentially it was challenging people to do something - whatever it was - 2020 times,” she said.

Taylor chose to write 2,020 letters to troops overseas.

“For the entire month of December. I started writing the cards. I wrote about 100 a day,” she said. “The last day I wrote the cards was actually Christmas Day, and I wrote 400 in 24 hours because I just really wanted to get the project done. My hand is better now thankfully, that was brutal on my joints.”

She says every pen stroke was worth it. “I’ve had people in the military, reach out to me and say that what you’re doing is so great because they felt so forgotten in this time period and…that just like broke my heart.”

Taylor was not the only one spreading the love, she started a survey so that others could share their gratitude as well. “From March through November, I was trying to collect as many responses as I could. I got a lot of different mixed messages which I think is good that each one was kind of personalized,” she stated.

While these cards will be cherished overseas, Taylor says the work behind the scenes was the biggest gift of all.

“This has been like the worst year I’ve yet experienced. And these cards really just like gave me something to motivate myself to move forward. These cards just like really meant the world to me honestly.”

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