Send Mail Lots of Mail

Mids will be given their mailing address on I-day. Most Mids will write home within the first couple of days, sending their mailing address. (Attempts by the Parents' Club to obtain addresses earlier than that have been fruitless.)  In some years, that first note has also included the date of the first phone call home. Parents who go to I-day can usually get their Mid's address from a staff member who is seated around the corner from the main entrance to Alumni Hall during the morning of I-day. There will be a table there with several Midshipmen and a large computer printout.  Distribute this address to grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends so your Mid will get lots of mail over the summer.

There will be no E-mail until Mids are issued their computers after Parents' Weekend, so you will have to rely on the post office. Generally speaking, letters take approximately 4-5 days to get from New Mexico to Annapolis.

Send notes, photographs, postcards, funny stories, newspaper articles, jokes anything that will lift sagging spirits. Most greeting card companies make "Thinking of You," "Cope," or "Hang in There" cards. (Buy a supply of these and postcards to mail in between letters to  remind your Mid that you are there for him/her, even on days when you can't fill a letter. A mail-order company called "mach1" sells items with a military theme, among them notecards and postcards. See their Web site at http://www.mach-1.com, or call for a catalog 1-800-955-MACH or 530-893-4000. Also buy a bunch of postcards showing the hat toss at Commissioning.  Photos and cards can be placed under the transparent desk covering to remind your Mid that you're thinking of him or her.