Hallmark selling Veterans Day cards for first

time

By Amy Shafer, Associated Press, 11/04/02

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hallmark Cards Inc. twice experimented with selling Veterans

Day cards and twice decided the market wasn't there. But that was before Sept. 11,

and before Keri Olson made them a personal crusade.`

Olson had wanted to get a card for her father, who fought in the Vietnam War, last

Veterans Day.

"I think with the events of Sept. 11, I began to understand all that he had sacrificed. I

really wanted to tell him," she said.

Employed by Hallmark at its Kansas City headquarters the past two years, she

knew the company did not make a specific card for that day. So she chose one that

simply expressed appreciation and on Nov. 11 gave it to her father, who was in the

Army and had received a Purple Heart.

"When he got this card, he started crying and saying that no one had ever thanked

him before," she recalled.

Olson, 33, set out to convince her company that making Veterans Day cards was a

good idea. The company had found out otherwise in tests of the cards in 1985 and

1999, when sales proved sparse.

Hallmark agreed to give it another try, and a team of writers and artists volunteered to

help with designs, along with their normal duties.

The team expected about 5,000 stores would want the cards when they became

available earlier this year, according to Hallmark spokeswoman Rachel Bolton.

Instead, orders came in from more than 18,000 stores, and some have already

ordered a second batch.

While precise information on sales is not yet available, Bolton said of Olson, "Sales

have proved she was right."

The difference between this year and the earlier experiments is obvious, Bolton said.

"Things had changed," she said. "People were feeling different following 9-11."

Most of the 20 Veterans Day cards in Hallmark's line are aimed at specific groups of

veterans. There are cards for each branch of the military, for veterans of World War II

and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, for women, for fathers and for sons.

Last year, Hallmark's biggest competitor, American Greetings, offered some cards

for Veterans Day in conjunction with other patriotic cards issued after the terrorist

attacks. This year, it is offering electronic Veterans Day cards on its Web sites,

www.americangreetings.com and www.bluemountain.com.

Bolton said Hallmark's top-selling card so far is one for fathers that features two

children with their hands over their hearts. It reads: "Thanks for Defending `Liberty

and Justice for All."'

Another popular card salutes World War II veterans. It says: "Veterans of World War

II led the way for countless heroes to come. Today your sacrifice and courage mean

more than ever. ... Today your service and you are remembered with honor."

"We think it's a great idea. In fact, we encouraged Hallmark to do that some years

ago," said Jerry Newberry, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "I know

most veterans and their families will be appreciative that those cards will be

available."

Because of the terrorist attacks, he said, "there's a new awareness, I think, of what

veterans have done to maintain our way of life, and all of the sacrifices that are

attached to the service."