Snail Mail My Email Project
August 15, 2011 at 10:49 am 7 comments
A few weeks back, via a friend’s facebook post (thanks Brett), I heard about snailmailmyemail.org, a site where you could type in an email and have it turned into a letter and mailed for free. When I went to take a look, I learned that they had been completely bombarded with responses and were looking for volunteers to help transcribe.
Well. I have decent penmanship. I can doodle a bit. And, although I have embraced the ease and speed of computers, I have also grieved the disappearance of real letters from the world. I still have shoeboxes full of them, but it’s been a very long time since I added anything to the box other than, say, a store-bought card that made me laugh especially hard, feel especially good, and/or came with the signature of a niece or nephew.
So I signed up. Here are a few examples of the emails I snail-mail’ed:
1. There were some really wonderful expressions of love and marriage. Here’s a short, sweet, Serbian one that was headed for a lady in Croatia. I also had letters that were written in German, Polish, Spanish, French, and Hungarian. (Thank goodness for freetranslation.com.)
2. There were letters to and from roommates, colleagues, siblings, parents, children, grandparents . . . and pets.
3. The Award for Initially Baffling But Most Hilarious Request goes to Derek who’s email included this request: “Please include a picture of two (preferably male and female) giant sandwiches getting married while drinking beer.”
Although it will be nice to see the dining room table looking like a table for dining instead of the opening scene of Hoarders as directed by Dr. Seuss, I will miss this project. It’s been an honor to help put words of friendship, love, joy, encouragement, understanding, gratitude, and lunchmeat out into the world.
Cheers and Thanks to Ivan Cash in San Francisco who created the project. And shared the fun.
________________
You can see more about the project, letter destinations, and the coverage the project has gotten on the website. Please note that all images/letters are property of snailmailmyemail, used here with permission.
Entry filed under: Life Preservers. Tags: Ivan Cash, letters, snail mail my email.
Never Tailgate is a gift book with car photos and tips for new drivers. Dare to be Happy is a gift book with advice about life (and doodles). Both are available on amazon.
Life Preservers 
1.
ivan | August 15, 2011 at 11:01 am
this is great, thanks so much for sharing :)
and i LOVE the photos. have you sumbitted them to snailmailphotos@gmail.com??
+Ivan
(from SMME)
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2.
ivan | August 15, 2011 at 11:02 am
(hi res!!! )
:)
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3.
boatdrinkbaby | August 15, 2011 at 11:11 am
Well, hi! Yes, I’ve been sending them in. :) Actually just re-sent all today because I had not been putting destinations in file names.
Still have a few letters left to do yet to. Savoring! :)
(Hopefully hi-rez-enough? Was using an iPod touch and they are not as good as I would have liked.)
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4.
Cailyn | August 15, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Great post, Beth! Thank you so much for all your hard work and being a rockstar volunteer. I really enjoyed reading about your experiences. :)
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5.
WritingbyEar | August 16, 2011 at 12:35 am
These are wonderful! How fun to get something like this instead of bills and junk mail.
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6. Snail Mail Book – Coming in November « Life Preservers | August 15, 2012 at 7:44 am
[…] Snail Mail My Email was a fun letter-writing project created by Ivan Cash. I shared a bit about the project last summer. […]
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7. Snail Mail My Email 2013 | Life Preservers | November 11, 2013 at 10:19 pm
[…] It’s that time of year again. Snail Mail My Email has begun. (Here’s another Life Preservers post about the project: Snail Mail My Email Project.) […]
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