RIT Students Say ‘Thanks’ to Troops Serving Overseas

The thoughts of most college students this time of year turn to final exams and graduation. Rochester Institute of Technology students will make time for another important goal—to collect more than 1,000 messages of support for U.S. troops serving overseas during a daylong card drive on Thursday, May 10. RIT students are teaming up with Xerox Corporation’s (NYSE: XRX) Let’s Say Thanks^SM program, which gives the public a free and easy way to send postcards to the troops.

The colorful postcards that will be used in the May 10 campus card drive feature patriotic themes drawn by children, ages 6 to 14, from across the country. RIT’s School of Print Media students printed the four-color double sided postcards on the university’s Xerox iGen3® Digital Production Press.

“Many of us have friends serving overseas, and they’ve told us how much the support from home means,” says Julie Coggshall, RIT student in the ROTC program. “After learning about the Let’s Say Thanks program, we wanted to find a way to participate.”

Hosted by ROTC’s military fraternity Pershing Rifles Z-8, the RIT Let’s Say Thanks card drive will be held on campus from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Infinity Quad as well as the stretch between the residence halls and Clark Gymnasium known as the “quarter mile.” All signed postcards will be sent to deployed U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world in care packages from the military support organization Give2TheTroops®.

“Working with members of the military and RIT students here in Rochester underscores why we created the program—to honor the troops and connect with Xerox communities,” says Mike Brannigan, president of Xerox’s United States Solutions Group.

To date, more than 10.5 million people have sent well-wishes to troops around the globe using the official program Web site www.LetsSayThanks.com and through local card drives across the country.

MEDIA NOTES: Please check-in at the visitor’s booth and then park in Lot E.
For more information about Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news. Xerox®, iGen3® and Let’s Say Thanks^SM are trademarks of Xerox Corp.