MONCTON -- For many people, the holidays are about spending time with loved ones, but for the men and women serving overseas in the Canadian Armed Forces, coming home for Christmas just isn’t an option.

That’s why one woman in Moncton is hoping to send a little piece of home to them this Christmas.      

“Sometimes, especially during the holidays, you’re pretty sad to be away from your family and your friends,” says Jody Phillips.

“To open up cards from, especially little kids, homemade cards with, ‘We support you, we love you, we miss you,’ I think it’s going to mean a lot.”

Her brother has been a member of the Canadian military for nearly 25 years and has previously been deployed over the holidays. With him in mind, Phillips put out a call for homemade Christmas cards for Canadian Armed Forces members serving overseas.

“I think it’s really important that we show the military that we support them, and they’re not alone during Christmas, and they have support coming from Moncton,” she says,

So far, the New Brunswick community has stepped up in a big way.

As of Wednesday, Phillips had received more than 600 cards, and was expecting another 250 cards on Thursday.

“I still have emails of people sending, saying they want theirs picked up, so hopefully we’re going to reach our goal of 1,000,” says Phillips.

Nancy Dufort’s Grade 1 class at Magnetic Hill School is among the hundreds of students contributing cards to the cause.

“They were really excited about someone maybe opening their card from wherever, and seeing their little name, that some little person was thinking about them during the holidays,” says Dufort.

“We should all be sending cards because there’s a lot of people who aren’t there,” notes student Lauren Payne.

Phillips says each card she has received is full of creativity and kindness.

“Just putting them in the envelopes, I read every single one, and I’ve looked at every drawing and every poem, and it was really overwhelming,” she says.

“I know that people that receive it are going to feel so great about it, that someone took the time out of their day to think about them.”