Connect with Friends and Loved Ones

Through the US Mail — For Free

WASHINGTON, DC —A card in the mail is like an unexpected visit from a friend, a way to connect with absent loved ones that stands out among the digital clutter of voicemails and emails. Thanks to the United States Postal Service and HBO, Americans can rekindle the power of the written word with a greeting card to send a heartfelt, handwritten message to someone special — free of charge.

For National Card and Letter Writing Month, the Postal Service is encouraging Americans to log onto poweroftheletter.com and order a greeting card. The card will be sent with a stamped envelope enclosed. Both the card and the stamped envelope are sent at no cost. Drop the mobile phone and PDA for just a minute and pick up a pen instead of sending an email or text message. The message you send via the US Mail can be saved for years or even centuries and not deleted with a simple keystroke.

“Letters and cards are personal, you can hold them, you can read them over and over again, and keep them forever — these are things that email and text messaging cannot replace,” said Anita Bizzotto, chief marketing officer for the Postal Service. “National Card and Letter Writing Month pays tribute to the power of the written word and promotes the emotional and historical value of the mail.”

The Postal Service and HBO created the “Power of the Letter” campaign to promote handwritten correspondence, educate all on the historical significance of this type of communication, and reintroduce John Adams, one of our founding fathers who was a prolific writer. He and his wife Abigail exchanged over 1,100 letters during the course of their courtship and marriage. The letters, held by the Massachusetts Historical Society, were a crucial resource for historian David McCullough, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams is the foundation for the HBO miniseries of the same name premiering on March 16.

The Postal Service website, usps.com will feature a John Adams—period look during this week in celebration of the premiere. The website poweroftheletter.com includes a variety of cards to choose from, additional information about the miniseries and John Adams, and a sweepstakes.

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/news.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.