Redditors currently serving in the U.S. armed forces are about to get a big thank you from the Reddit community. The social news site aims to pair users in the U.S. with members serving abroad in an offical Reddit gift exchange for the troops.
The initiative is part of a larger ongoing project, "redditgifts." This secret-santa style gift exchange allows users to swap goods with each other. Past redditgifts exchanges have presented users with DVDs, letters, basic necessities and even a laptop.
The troops gift exhange launched Tuesday -- and comedian Stephen Colbert has already claimed the first spot on the list of gift givers, or "santas."
Colbert is no stranger to Reddit. The community caught his attention when they raised more than $100,000 in less than 8 hours for the "Restoring Truthiness" rally
According to Reddit, it will be getting more well-known Redditors to join in on the redditgifts for troops exchange too.
In the video below, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian claims he was inspired by recent conversations with members of the armed forces on Reddit who received care packages from other users.
This is one of many recent initiatives from Reddit that show the impact it has when it convenes its large community for goodwill. We've seen what small gestures and random acts of kindness had on one terminally ill man, and Ohanian hopes to bring the same encouragement and good-spirited nature to the many troops overseas.
Signups for troops and santas begins Tuesday May 21, and ends June 18. Users sending care packages must ship by July 9.