I have been a long time “silent” reader and am enthused about this forum and the helpfulness of everyone and the great help granted to those looking for answers.
I want to ask the following questions and perhaps you all can give me advice and/or directions on how to proceed.
I know of an elderly gentleman who will be celebrating his 80th birthday soon and I want to do something special and unique; so my idea is to get him birthday greetings from all over the world. As incentive I was thinking of perhaps do a drawing of a hotel voucher(s) among those that write. Unfortunately I am at a loss of how to put this idea into action.
Where could I go and get the required necessary wide-spread advertisement? Any idea on how I could get total strangers to invest time a card/letter/stamp to a total stranger? Will a drawing of hotel voucher(s) cause any legal problems? Would this actually be an incentive? Or is this a bad idea all together?
I don’t want to contact the media; that would require revealing his name and address and not only would spoil the surprise but also might not be in his best interest. I was thinking of directed all mail to a post office box to keep this as a total surprise.

I appreciate any comments you might have and any help you can give me.

Karina

PS: Thank you Mikel at Webflyer for your kind e-mail and directing me to the right Forum.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Sonnen!

I hope your thoughtful and interesting birthday surprise is successful.

And I'd be glad to send a card. Just give us a heads-up as to his first name and a PO Box to which we can mail it. Not sure where you're located but sending international mail might be a bit more expensive for some.

I don't think it's necessary to offer an incentive for this although others may disagree.

I am in...let me know when and where to send and ill drop one off from SAT
No incentive needed...

This is a good forum to make this request. Just ask that people send you a PM & you'll provide the contact info (don't provide it on this thread). Also provide an end date (if there is one) on when you need to receive the cards etc.

Cheers.

You will find a genuine community on FlyerTalk. The more you participate in the various forums, the more folks will recognize your handle, and the more motivated they are to help you by sending a card. Over the years, others have asked for greeting cards or postcards for a school classroom, a significant birthday, someone who is ill who needs spirits lifted, and so on. The more that folks recognize that you are being helpful thru your own participation in forums, the most you will find want to help you with such a project.

I don;t think a drawing would pose any problems but perhaps others know more?