This post originally appeared on the White House Blog on December 9, 2011.

Operation Honor Card has successfully collected 14,000,000 pledged hours of service from Americans who want to honor military families and veterans through acts of kindness, big and small, showing appreciation for their sacrifice.

With more than 5,740,000 hours already served,Operation Honor Card has inspired communities across the nation to come together in a grassroots effort to proudly honor military families and veterans.

A joint project of Blue Star Families, American Red Cross, Points of Light Institute, ServiceNation, and the Corporation for National and Community Service, Operation Honor Cards is part of First Lady's Joining Forces initiative for military families, which aims to create an atmosphere of shared service and a WWII sense of 'all give some' by encouraging Americans to perform service in honor of military families and veterans.

The town of Independence, Kansas has stepped up, rallying around the cause of serving military families and veterans. In partnership with Blue Star Families, RSVP volunteers in Independence collected more than 25,000 pledged hours of service. With a population of 9,400, every resident donated nearly three hours of their time to help a military family or veteran.

In Montana, what started as a small service project expanded into a statewide effort, where Senior Corps volunteers have collected pledges totaling more than 300,000 hours, pushing the grand total of pledged hours for Operation Honor Card over 14,000,000. The drive culminated on Veterans Day, with the pledges displayed on a Wall of Service at Montana State University.

The impact of these Senior Corps volunteers in Kansas and Montana is truly inspiring, showing how a little kindness can blossom into a movement to help military families and veterans.

With the momentum now on our side, reaching 15,000,000 hours is in sight. Let's show our military families, veterans and service members how much we appreciate them by honoring their service with ours by visiting http://www.honorcards.org/.

Three of the biggest stars in America are lending their voices to Joining Forces, the initiative started by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr.Jill Biden to bring attention to the unique needs and strength of America's military families.Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg have each created public service announcements (PSAs) that tell real stories about America's military families and call on all Americans to give back to ensure service members and military families have the support they have earned.
 

A few years ago, as I began to travel around the country and talk to all sorts of people, one set of stories always tugged at my heart.They took my breath away.They inspired me.And they motivated me to learn more.They were stories of strength, courage, and patriotism that define our nation's military families. And I know that Fayetteville is filled with them.
 

Watch a video from the Independence Day celebration at the White House. The President and First Lady joined more than 1,200 military heroes and their families for a barbeque, a special USO show featuring Train and Amos Lee, and a viewing of the fireworks over the National Mall.
 

It's the start of a long Fourth of July weekend and for many that means a trip to the beach or backyard barbeques. For most it will mean an extra day or two off work and a patriotic celebration of some sort, possibly a parade or some fireworks.