Royer's Flowers & Gifts is collecting holiday cards and coloring pages for service members and veterans throughout November in each of its stores. Royer's will present the collected items to the American Red Cross' Holidays for Heroes program.

Cards and coloring pages may be dropped off at any Royer's store during normal business hours. Free coloring pages can be downloaded at http://www.royers.com/heroes.

The Red Cross offers several guidelines for preparing the cards. People should use generic salutations such as "Dear service member" or "Dear veteran." When writing in the card, people should express reasons why they are thankful for the service members or veterans. Those who have a personal connection, such as a family member who served, should add that information to the card.

The cards should not be overtly religious, but messages such as "Merry Christmas" or "God bless you" are acceptable. Inserts such as glitter, photos and business cards should not be included. Also, the cards should not include personal information such as telephone numbers or home or email addresses. However, the cards should be signed with the giver's name.

Family-owned Royer's has 16 stores in Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties, including one Stephenson's Flowers & Gifts location in Harrisburg.