Marc Fogel

For the third Christmas that history teacher and Butler native Marc Fogel will spend detained in a Russian prison, the family is pushing for more holiday cards to be sent to lift his spirits and let him — and the Department of State — know that he has not been forgotten.

Last year, Fogel’s younger sister, Anne, said family and friends sent Christmas cards to her brother through the U.S. Embassy. The letter arrived to the penal colony about six months late, she said.

The drive from Moscow to the penal colony where Fogel is imprisoned takes about six to eight hours, she said. She said her brother sees each letter.

“It really means a great deal to him when he gets them,” Anne Fogel said. “It’s a really hard time for him — it’s understandably an incredibly hard time for him to imagine his family and us not being there.”

“We also want to make a statement,” Anne Fogel said. “All of the mail collected goes through the U.S. Embassy, and they need to know no one is forgetting him. This is ongoing, and we need the State Department to be actively thinking about this.”

Each letter is opened, she said.

“I would love to think he gets hundreds of letters that (the State Department has) to open and review,” she said. “And then probably the (Russian state).”

His mother, Malphine Fogel, 94, said she hopes the letters will get the State Department’s attention.

“I want them to notice that he’s still there, that he’s a real being,” she said. “He’s not famous. He’s just a common, ordinary, good person. He made an impact on his students, and he still has his childhood friends that are very loyal and do everything they can for him.”

“We just don’t want him forgotten,” she continued. “We just hope the government notices that and tries to get him out. It’s (been) almost two and a half years now.”

This will be the third Christmas without her son, she said.

“It’s pretty sad if you let it be,” she said. “We just pray that something will happen — that’s all we can do.”