From Our Hearts

We forgot to ask Stephen ! ! !

We get packages, like the ones that arrived from Madison . . .

 

and more goodies . . .

or the numerous amount of boxes we get daily . . .

 

and then there was LeAnn A's box . . .

  

You get the idea.  But then the other day, we were on the phone and Martie said, "I just looked out my window and Stephen's here" and it dawned on us.  We never asked Stephen, Martie's faithful, considerate and caring mailman if he would like to triple and quadruple the amount of very heavy box deliveries on his route ! How did that happen ?

So we would like to introduce you to our unsung hero, who goes out of his way to protect our valuable parcels.  He is an extraordinary individual who "gets" it as well.

Please meet Stephen, our champion of safe delivery of your precious parcels !

and he is even smiling ! Stephen, we apologize for never asking you formally if you would like to step up and accept the daunting task of these very heavy pieces but as you can see he does so with joy. From all of us, thank you Stephen for being our guardian angel of delivery!  On behalf of all the men and women who are serving our Country and protecting our Freedom, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

with a little help from a friend

Martie Shea has been holding a monthly card making event in Jefferson City Mo at the local library for quite some time now. Each month we are so excited to see more and more volunteers show up to help out. It has made a huge difference in the amount of cards we are able to send over each month. Want to hold your own event ? Contact us here at From Our Hearts and we will get you set up.

Recently tho, we got a huge boost when a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator by the name of Debbie Longanecker started coming. Not only did she show up to help but she brought cardstock, ribbon, stamps and ink to make really gorgeous cards as well. Too cool.

This past month's event about 40 people came out to help and over 400 cards were produced, that's almost 2 whole boxes ! Wheee !

 

Debbie brought these cards she designed, cut, prepared and had ready for the public to stamp and assemble . . .

 

 

which are exactly what we are in need of for our boxes. Thank you Debbie for your support and your beautiful donations.

The coolest organized box we have received so far

When you are a not-for-profit organization, the federal government has lots of rules, more rules than you can even imagine. Some of us aren't really good with those rules, but we are struggling to do our best with them.

One of the rules we are just absolutely loving these days, (NOT) is an inventory rule. Every piece of absolutely everything has to be inventoried before we can ship it out. That means every single card, envelope or protective envelope. We are talking THOUSANDS of pieces. Every single week, month, you get the idea . . .

So, I said one day not to long ago,"Hmmm, maybe we should ask our card makers to please count their cards before they put them in their boxes to ship to us and that could really help us out here". Sounded like a great idea and a ton of relief for the office volunteers.

Well, let me tell you exactly how great our volunteers really are. Or rather let me show you . . .  

 

This incredible box came from California from a wonderful, very meticulous card maker by the name of Bernadette C, who not only counted them but separated them by category ! ! ! ! The office volunteers almost fainted when they opened this box. She also included a wonderful letter telling us how she found us through her Stampin' Up!® demonstrator Sam Slimak (Thanks Sam !)and how grateful she is to be able to donate her cards.

Uh, Bernadette you have got that a little backwards. We are the ones that are so very grateful for your talent and generosity but more importantly your organizational skills ! Thank you so much and can't wait for that next perfectly organized box.

Heisinger Bluffs in August and our apologies!

So there Susan was, speaking to about 150 Western Missouri Optimist Club Officers last week in Springfield MO when Susan was corrected about a reference she had made earlier.  It seems she had used the words "nursing home" when referring to a place that holds a card making event every month for us in Jefferson City MO.

One of the more 'spunky' Optimists from Jefferson City MO is a lovely lady by the name of Winona Thomas, a very young 90 something, who is a resident of the Heisinger Bluffs. We have had the unbelievable privilege of being part of their activities now for the last three months, thanks to their Activities Director, Nina Meeks.

Here's Nina working right along side with her spirited group.

 

Winona brought to our attention that she had misspoken and referred to Heisinger as a nursing home and she very clearly set Susan straight that all these residents are there to 'live', assisted or not, but most definitely, this is not a nursing home. They are more active than most of us on a good day !

Every time we meet there, we have a packed house of eager volunteers, who by the way, come to this event so beautifully dressed up  . . .

 

and boy, do they make cards . . .

 

 

look at the stacks of cards on that table. Last week was another Christmas card session and they made beautiful Christmas cards . . .

  

  

They produced almost 50 cards an hour which is a huge accomplishment. They are so generous towards our effort, they purchase envelopes, both types and also donate postage for mailing the cards they have produced. This is volunteering at it's very best. Seems that the administration who operate this facility have taken notice as to what their residents have been up to as well, making recommendations that their other facilities get involved with having card making events. Thank you Nina, we couldn't do this  without your support and all those youngsters that show up every single time we are there!  You know the residents of Heisinger Bluffs Residential Center. There you go Winona, hope we're cool now ! ! !

And by the by, the gentleman in shorts in the picture is our very own card making angel Gerry K (another one of those wonderful Optimist), who never misses any of our events ! Thank you Gerry for assisting the residents at Heisinger.

Finally we meet . . . . our cardmaker Robbie Cox

One of the biggest thrills of us being able to attend the Stampin' Up!® Convention was to be able to meet some of the wonderful card makers that send us cards for our boxes.

Meet Robbie Cox (r), from Henderson NV who has contributed beautiful cards that were ready to be shipped, that is cards with envelopes and placed in clear envelopes to us. She was thrilled to speak with us and couldn't wait to tell us about plans for more cards.
 

Meeting face to face is such a thrill for us, it gives a chance to say thank you and let all of you know how much you mean to us.

on the road again . . . still . . .

Somewhere there are a couple of homes looking for us wondering when, if ever are we going to make it back and stay on one place for oh, maybe more than 48 hours !

Not this week, as we are headed to beautiful Springfield MO to speak with a group of Optimist Clubs gathered for their annual State meeting. In case you are not familiar with the Optimist Clubs, check them out in your community. They are a service organization that focuses on positive community improvements for children primarily. The first occasion I had to visit with them in Jefferson MO, they were talking about a playground that they had constructed on an abandoned lot and how much the neighborhood, especially the children were benefiting. It was quite an accomplishment. You can check them out here.

Since our visit with them, several of the Jefferson City MO group have been steadfast supporters of our organization. One in particular, has become addicted to stamping, we won't mention any initials Gerry,  but thank you so much for showing up, stamping up a storm and helping us produce hundreds of Holiday cards in the last couple of months at every event we have held in the Jefferson City  MO area. Every card that is made is one more family that gets to hear from their loved one serving.

We are on the road trying to raise awareness about our program to help find us donations towards postage. In less than 90 days we will be sending thousands of Holiday cards to Iraq and Afghanistan so that our military may send Holiday greeting to their loved ones. It is the right thing to do but oh so costly at $11.95 a box of about 230 cards. So if you know of someone wishing to help out with postage, direct them to our site. Every single dollar helps. Thank you.

Two packages have arrived !

We got two, yippee ! ! ! Not that we are greedy, but two is a lot of excitement here.

They were stacked nice and neatly.

The first box was from Sharon Carr and she put the nicest note inside hers, the last paragraph says:
"Thanks so much for doing this service.  I applaud each of you for the effort you put into this."
Here's the inside of her box:  It was FULL, packed tight...

of drop dead gorgeous cards. Thank you Sharon for being a part of our service. It wouldn't be possible without great card makers like yourself.

Micki Harper sent this cute little card on top of her package,

It said, "Inch by inch I'm wishing you a great day!  Then her note says she only has 16 cards this time.  ONLY?  That's 16 servicemen & women, 16 family & friends that otherwise wouldn't get a beautiful card and a precious note to tell them how much they miss home and family. Micki, they are precious cards, all 16 of them. Thank you so much.

on the road again . . .

Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, we are here for the annual Stampin' Up! Convention and as I have told at least 200 fellow stampers that we have encountered so far, we are here to not only learn and see new things about stamping, but basically to beg and grovel for stampers to send us their cards and card fronts for our card store boxes.

You have to understand something up Stampin' Up! stampers. We are generally a very generous group. But take time to explain a 'mission' like ours and look out, that generosity turns into PASSION and huge drive. Martie and I were waiting in a line today for about 3 hours, give or take 15 minutes, and by the time we got out of line, we had handed out 100 business cards for stampers to mail us cards and card fronts and had told our story and what we do at least 40 times. And we haven't even started our 3 day Convention. This is going to to be a wild ride.

But oh so worth it. Right before we got here, we received the greatest letter from Army Chaplain Major Dave Bowlus in Afghanistan. In part it reads . . .

"My unit was the fortunate recipients of your most recent care package of handmade cards! On behalf of our camp, I wanted to thank you for your generous and thankful gifts. I was shocked and humbled at the hours of work you put into just one box of cards  . . . We put the cards in the Chapel where we get hundreds of visitors each day . . . it was unbelievable to witness that within 1 week all the cards had been picked up and used by the warriors on the compound . . .

Please keep our men in your thoughts and prayers. The road is difficult and the sacrifices will continue to be costly. Thank you for being a part of this effort by meeting a very real need we have to stay connected with our homes. Thank you for your gifts and prayers. They mean more than you know."

I can't wait to get back to pleading for more cards, supplies and postage donations tomorrow. It is so worth the effort when you get a letter like this.

We are making difference, one handcrafted greeting card at a time.