As end-of-year festivities fast approach, Forest Park residents will once again get together to draft hundreds of cards for Illinois veterans to lift their spirits during the holiday season.
The initiative is called Operation Rising Spirits — which the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs launched in 2020 — and it’s the third year Forest Park is participating. Last year, Forest Parkers wrote 795 letters for veterans — which made up over half of all letters in the state.
“This year, it’ll be even bigger,” Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin told the Review. She first pitched participating in Operation Rising Spirits to the Historical Society of Forest Park, which helps organize annual events where the community writes holiday cards together.
“I wanted to have an opportunity to recognize our veterans locally. I saw it as a wonderful service project,” Melin-Rogovin said of why she helped launch the initiative in Forest Park. She added that it’s a good opportunity to educate residents about local veterans and how the village has contributed to past war efforts. “It was a way to bring our community together and also to help the next generation understand and recognize the veterans who are living in our community today.”
Last year, Forest Park Middle School students wrote 205 cards for Operation Rising Spirits. Scout Troop 107 also contributed to the effort. This year, Melin-Rogovin said all D91 schools are participating, along with the scouts, the library’s older adults social circle, and Little Teeth Big Smiles employees.
“It’s really caught on as something that the whole village participates in,” Melin-Rogovin said. “I like the idea of offering a service project, especially to our students in D91 to help someone who they’ve never met … to help reach out to folks who they will never meet and to provide words of comfort, care and thanks to someone who has made the country we live in free and safe.”
Locals at Bobby’s Eastside, writing letters to veterans for last year’s Operation Rising Spirits | Alexis Ellers 
Alexis Ellers 
Alexis Ellers 
Mark Boroughf, president of the Historical Society of Forest Park, and Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin at last year’s Operation Rising Spirits community letter writing event | Alexis Ellers 
Last year’s piles of letters from Forest Park that were sent to veterans around Illinois | Provided
There are five long-term Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs care homes in Illinois with capacity for over 1,000 veterans. Melin-Rogovin said she’s heard from their staff that the holiday cards are a welcome treat for those whose families live far away.
“There are folks who get cards who don’t have a lot of visitors at all,” Melin-Rogovin said. “It’s a personal touch that they’re receiving at the holidays to thank them for their service, but also to show that someone cares and remembers them when they’re not receiving visitors.”
Melin-Rogovin said, every year, she sees Operation Rising Spirits participants full of enthusiasm and thoughtfulness when they get together to write their cards.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to get to know people that you may not have met before, to reflect and to think about our veterans and the service that they’ve given our country, and to express your thanks to a veteran or service member who needs our love and care this holiday season,” Melin-Rogovin said.
“Operation Rising Spirits is more than a holiday tradition,” said Alexis Ellers, executive director of the Historical Society, in an email. “It is a simple yet powerful way to remind veterans that they are seen, valued and remembered during a season that can be difficult for many. A small gesture can carry great meaning.”
Community members are invited to gather at Jimmy’s Place, 7411 W. Madison St., on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m. to write cards together. Supplies and pizza will be available, and the Historical Society will share stories of local veterans. There will be another card-writing event Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. at the Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Blvd.
