By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

This holiday season, many care packages sent to U.S. troops overseas will feature two decks of playing cards. The cards are sent from the generosity of the MGM Grand Casino, in Detroit, and Fox Run, in Novi.

For two hours every Thursday, a group of residents at Fox Run sort playing cards destined for the troops.

“The cards come from the casino—they used to scrap them and put them in landfills,” says Gloria Theodoroff, a resident at Fox Run who coordinates the Cards for Troops project there. “We have about 21 women on our committee here.”

The cards are delivered to Fox Run by a local volunteer and veteran. “Every deck has a punch through the center, so they know they are casino cards,” Theodoroff explains. Each group member meticulously sorts  through the cards, first separating them by suit. “We lay them out, ace through king, and assemble them, ace on top and king on bottom, and then rubberband them,” she says.

Eventually, after each suit is separated, one person carefully combines them into empty boxes, complete with two jokers, a calendar, and a card that reads, “God bless and good luck from the ladies of Fox Run, in Novi, Michigan.”

“The cards are shipped all over,” she says. “We’ve probably sent out over 8,000 decks here so far.”

She says the ladies enjoy the camaraderie of working together are “very fast and efficient.”

Once the cards are sorted and boxed, they are picked up and shipped out; then more cards are delivered, and the process starts all over again.

“It’s satisfying to know we are doing something to contribute to the soldiers, to give them a moment of leisure,” she says.

Theodoroff says the group will continue doing what they do “as long as there are soldiers overseas.”