FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Finding volunteers to help Fairhope dentist Kaye Shaw has not been anything like — pulling teeth.

Instead, community support has been bright for the ambitious project she started 11 months ago to send 10,000 Christmas cards to American troops in Iraq this year.

“I saw this soldier picking up Christmas cards and then putting them back down,” Shaw said, of her experience the day after Christmas last year in a local store.

That got her thinking.

“I imagined how nice it would be for soldiers to have the surprise of receiving cards at Christmas this year,” Shaw said. “That night I went home and e-mailed friends and family. I got a very positive response.”

The idea caught on.

From The Happy Stitchers of the Thomas Hospital Auxiliary to students up and down the Eastern Shore, Christmas cards have been finding their way to Shaw’s office at 106 Lottie Lane.

A growing mountain of them is in the corner of her busy dentist’s office.

“I have a lot more at home,” she said.

She’ll have even more after today’s Veterans Day assembly at Fairhope Elementary School.

As part of their annual event in honor of Veterans Day, students there (all second- and third-graders) will present approximately 300 handmade Christmas cards to Shaw in a ceremony at noon.

“All art educators in the county were made aware of Dr. Shaw’s project,” said Judy Humphrey, an art teacher at Fairhope Elementary and Intermediate schools. “We all loved the idea.”

Humphrey said she had done a project with her students using geometric shapes based on the method of artist Joan Miro.

“A friend of mine had a Christmas card created by Miro,” Humphrey said. “It was just the perfect tie-in for a project.”

She said Miro used symbols in his art, so her students used Christmas symbols in the art they made as cards for the soldiers.

“They then each wrote a little message,” she said. “They’re very proud. They call the soldiers their heroes. It means a lot to them.”

About 70 of the cards were on display last week at the Eastern Shore Art Center’s First Friday ArtWalk.

“I saw them and asked if we could have some here,” said Nancy Raia, ESAC’s Arts Bridging Creativity project director. “Then more children jumped on board.”

Raia said that additional cards made by other students who saw the cards on display will be added to the cards going to Iraq.

“(Their art) talked to me, and it spoke to other students here,” she said. “And it kept moving forward.”

Shaw said teachers and students at several schools including Fairhope Middle School, Bayside Academy and Spanish Fort Elementary School have been active participants in the project to send Christmas cards to troops overseas.

“I didn’t want any of them to think that they were forgotten,” Shaw said. “It’s one way for the community to come together and remember them. We are all grateful for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make.”

Shaw said the project has produced about 4,500 cards to date that will be sent to Iraq and distributed to soldiers throughout the country on Nov. 21. She will accept cards at her office through Nov. 20.

The organizer of Saturday’s Veterans Day parade was impressed by the project.

“It’s absolutely wonderful,” Joe Birindelli said. “Our troops need to know that the people here support them. We need to show that support in as many ways as possible.”