Cards for a Cause
It's easy to spread hope, joy, and magic by creating cards for kids in the hospital!
It was a day like any other, and I was online watching YouTube when an ad for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital started playing. I usually skip past the ads, but this one had me hooked. The story was so sad, and I was bawling by the end. I wanted to donate money, but being on a tight budget and already at my max for charity donations, I googled: "how to help children's hospitals." There had to be something I could do to help, and I wasn't close enough to volunteer. That's when I found Cards for Hospitalized Kids!
"Cards for Hospitalized Kids(CFHK) is . . . charitable organization that spreads hope, joy & magic to hospitalized kids across America through uplifting, handmade cards.
Anyone can get involved with us, from anywhere. Individuals and groups . . . donate time and creativity to make handmade cards . . . for distribution in hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses across the nation."
This organization hits home because my little sister had Diaphragmatic Hernia and was life-flighted into emergency surgery right after being born. Her condition required follow-up surgeries eight hours away from our hometown. I will never forget my family's time in the Ronald McDonald house in the late 1980s while she was undergoing treatment. The staff was kind and even gave me a stuffed animal that I kept for years.
Cards for Hospitalized Kids had me at "spread HOPE, JOY and MAGIC." I want to do that! Plus, my creative side shines through this card-making project! I love flipping through magazines looking for cute pictures of animals to cut out and tape on the cards. I feel like a kid again picking out stickers at the store to peel and stick to the construction paper cards. Plus, I get to draw houses with smoke coming out of the chimney and trees with tire swings. I try to draw dogs and cats with crayons and markers, knowing no one will judge them if they look a little silly because kids love that stuff! Cards for Hospitalized Kids is such a genius idea, and it gives me such happiness knowing that something I made, something as simple as a card, brightened a kid's day. Here's how I do it and how you can too! It's really easy and fun!
Just make sure you follow the instructions provided on the Cards for Hospitalized Kids website. Then get to cutting, sticker-ing, writing, drawing, folding, taping, and crafting. The cards are very simple, but you can make them as unique as you want.
1. I start with an 8.5" x 11" piece of construction paper and fold it in half. Because we don't know who the card is going to specifically, don't address it to anyone, but do write in one of the following provided greetings:
2. Then write a short message on the inside. Stay away from illness-related comments like "Get Well" or "Feel Better" because, as the website states: "some of the patients suffer from medical conditions that are chronic, life-long, progressive and/or terminal." What a good point and such an understanding way to show empathy for these kids. I use the suggested comments because they are great! But you can come up with your own too.
3. Then the fun part begins: decorating the front. Just keep in mind that all decorations must lay flat and DON'T USE GLITTER. The website says a good test is to run your finger over the decoration, and if nothing comes off, it's okay. When I decorate the front of the card, I like to think about how it might hang on a child's hospital room wall and how it might make them feel or their reaction when they see it for the first time--like that cat wearing glasses. A cat wearing glasses? It cracks me up! I think it might make a kid laugh too!
4. Then it's time to mail the cards. I make about 10-20 per shipment. A flat 10"x13" envelope works well to ship, and you can drop it off at the post office or print a label from home.
Making these cards is super easy and rewarding. You could create them with your whole family or get a group of friends together! I'm so grateful someone thought up Cards for Hospitalized Kids. It's always so fun to get something in the mail, even when you're not sick. I like to imagine those kids looking forward to something as small as the daily mail, and when they get a card made just for them, it puts a smile on their face just as it did for me when I was making them!
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About the Creator
Nikole Lynn
Ancient Egypt, a hot cup of coffee or tea, my two cats, and a good book are my passions.
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