Caring Hearts Card Drive 2016

The purpose of our card drive is to collect holiday cards for the elderly that live in nursing homes. Vera Yates started this card drive 7 years ago, in honor of her mom’s request. That first year, we collected 750 cards. And each year it continue to grow bigger. Last year we received over 22,000 cards and distribute the cards to over 100 nursing homes throughout the US, Canada and Australia. Thank YOU!

Vera and I are excited to continue bringing holiday cheers to many nursing homes. This year, we’re branching out to the United Kingdom and this will allow us to start distributing in Europe.

The holidays are about family, kindness, and joy. During this time, many of the elderly who live in nursing homes feel lonely. Wouldn’t it be great if we brought a smile to their face & brightened their holiday season simply by sharing our love of card making? A simple gesture to let them know that they are not forgotten – that someone still thinking of them.

All you do is make cards. As many as you want and/or have time for. Anything helps! You mail them to us and we mail them out to volunteers who distribute them to nursing homes around the world.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• This card drive end 11/25/16. We need to receive your card by 11/25/16.
• Please make the cards for any holiday theme. Anyone can make or send a card – you, your children, church group, scout troops, etc.
• All cards need to have a message inside (it can be stamped or hand written). Just saying something like, “Hope you have a wonderful holiday! Love, Jennifer in Ohio.”
• Please sign your name and where you are from inside the card.
• Please include an envelope for each card and please don’t seal the envelope.
• Please stick to just cards (standard size A2 or 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″) as this will help us in packing more efficiently
• Please don’t use any pins, etc (safety reason).
• In each package, PLEASE include THIS SUBMISSION FORM. (More on that below.)
• This is totally optional — if you’d like to include $1 or $2 to help with shipping, it’ll be much appreciated. We cover the shipping cost ourselves – with no sponsor – so any donation toward shipping would help tremendously.

For US, you can mail the cards to:

• Vera Yates, 1314 Roy St., Houston, TX 77007
• Tina Schrof, 185 W. Pugh Drive, Springboro, OH 45066
• Lynn Reloza, 3353 Cimmarron Road, Cameron Park, CA 95682

For Australia:

• Linda Langes, c/o Gilston State School, 588 Worongary Road, GILSTON QLD 4211, Australia
• Deb McCleary, PO Box 213, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Australia

For Canada:

• Caroline Bredeson, 7 Brown Street, Ottawa, ON K1S 1L9, Canada
• Rita Andrews, 28 West Gissing Rd, Cochrane, Alberta T4C 1L6, Canada

• Taheerah Atchia, 36 Pinewood Crescent,Orrell, Wigan, Lancashire, WN5 8NF, United Kingdom

In each package, PLEASE include THIS SUBMISSION FORM. This helps us in keeping track for prizes! For each card you send, you will get a chance to win a prize. So the more cards you send, the better your chances.

Also, if you ‘d like to help us promote the card drive, whenever you’re sharing your projects for Caring Hearts on social media, please use the hashtag #caringheartscarddrive.

The nursing homes that we support are based on what people suggested to us. If you want your local nursing homes to receive cards from the card drive, please email me or Jennifer the name of the nursing homes and the number of residents, so we can make sure that we send enough cards. Each year, we never know how many nursing homes we can support as the number are totally based on how many cards we received. To keep things organized, we assigned the 7 collecting addresses above. This way we can keep track of the amount of cards as well as for prize purpose.

We’ll update the prize list as more prizes coming in. And huge thank you to all the fabulous, generous companies who support this card drive by donating awesome prizes.

• Altenew – $50 GC
• A Jillian Vance Design – $20 GC
• Avery Elle – $30 GC
• Birch Press – $25GC
• Bossy Josie – $40 GC
• Butterfly Reflections Ink – $25 GC
• CardMaker magazine – 1 year subscription
• Concord and 9th – $25 GC
• Crafter’s Companion US – $25 GC
• Crafter’s Companion UK – £25 GC
• Ellen Hutson – $50 GC
• Hallmark Scrapbook & Crafts – Two $50 GC
• Hero Arts – Three $50 GC
• Honey Bee Stamps – $50 GC
• Jane’s Doodle – $50 GC
• Lawn Fawn – $50 GC
• Little Things from Lucy’s Cards – £25 worth of products
• Mama Elephant – $25 GC
• My Favorite Things – $50 GC
• Neat & Tangled – $50 GC
• Newton’s Nook Designs – $25 GC
• Organize More – $75 GC
• Paper Smooches – $25 GC
• Pink & Main – $30 GC
• Pretty Pink Posh – $30 GC
• Reverse Confetti – $50 GC
• Right At Home – $20 GC
• Scrapbook & Cards Today: one year subscription
• Simon Says Stamp – $50 GC
• Spectrum Noir  – 1 tin of Coloured Blend Color Pencils
• SugarPea Designs – $25 GC
• Sunny Studios – $25 GC
• Sweet Escape Digis – $25 GC
• Sweet Stamp Shop – Two $25 GC
• Taylored Expressions – $50 GC
• The Ton Stamps – $25 GC
• Verve Stamps – $30 GCWOW Embossing Powder – $30 GC
• Your Next Stamp – $50 GC

We will update the prize list as we get more. Check Vera’s blog often for updates.

We really appreciate your support & generosity! Now let’s get cardmaking!