ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When Tim Virgilio first dreamed up the idea eight years ago of sending hand-written letters to baseball players asking them to sign cards that he could sell to raise money for veterans in need, he set a modest goal of just $500.
His Signatures for Soldiers charity has raised more than $148,000 for Military Missions in Action, which aids disabled and homeless veterans by helping provide housing and making modifications like constructing wheelchair ramps and roll-in-showers, widening doorways, and lowering cabinets and countertops.
In what has become an annual summer ritual, Virgilio and wife Michelle packed up all the items he has collected — which this year includes about 25,000 signed cards across all sports — into a van and traveled to the annual National Sports Collectors Convention. This year’s convention —the largest sports card and collectibles show in the country — starts Wednesday in Atlantic City, N.J., and this will be Signatures for Soldiers’ fourth year at the event.
