From Our Hearts

What Do We Do???

Why the question? From Our Hearts was faced with this very issue just 2 weeks ago when we realized that we had only 2 boxes of Easter cards and the shipment date was rapidly approaching.

So what did we do?  The board members and local volunteers GOT BUSY!!!  Using donated designer paper, card stock, ribbon, brads, ink and stamp sets, 1685 cards were made!  We gathered every day for 2 solid weeks and designed cards, cut paper, and many of our local stampers took the time to assemble them (we did many, too!)

We want each and every one of you to know that your contributions to us, not only cards, but the supplies used to make cards, goes to good use.  Imagine how many lives your contributions to us have been impacted!

From Our Hearts Announces Holiday Shipping Dates for 2013

2013 holiday shipments will be mailed on or about 6-8 weeks prior to the holiday and we request cards to be received by the following dates:
St. Patrick's Day, Easter and Spring themed cards -February 6 (mail out February 8)
Mother's Day: March 20 (mail out March 22)
Father's Day: April 24 (mail out April 26)
4th of July and summer themed cards: May 14 (mail out May 16)
Halloween and fall themed cards: September 10 (mail out September 12)
Thanksgiving: October 8 (mail out October 10)
Christmas/Holiday/winter themed cards: October 29 (mail out October 31)
Valentine’s Day: December 29 (mail out Jan 2)
All occasion cards are mailed over every 4-6 weeks, year round, depending upon the numbers of donations received and available funds. We accept cards of all types and holidays year-round.
We thank you for your support!

Easter Cards Will Ship Feb 8

Our thanks to so many of you who help us to fill up our boxes of cards - the next holiday is Easter, and while not a BIG holiday like Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's/Father's Day, we do send these cards to our service men and women.  We'll be mailing them off on Feb 8 - and we have 1 box plus a partial on hand - you help is appreciated so that we can at least fill up a quarter of a box to each location.

And, we sent so many cards this past month - we are running low on just about every type of card - with the exception of Birthday cards -

We thank each and every one of you for your help!

 

A Happy New Year

To all our contributors, to those who receive and send From Our Hearts' cards and to the recipients of those cards, we wish everyone a happy new year!

This past year has been remarkable - once more!  At the end of December, 36 boxes of mostly Valentines and love cards were mailed out - 281 in each box - and this brings our total of cards shipped to over 325,000 in just 4 short years!  The total for the year has not yet been computed, and we think we have shipped as many as we did last year.

Our service men and women continue to send us many, many letters of thanks, and so many of them tell us that they appreciate the fact that they continue to be supported in such a kind and loving way - and of course, how much they admire the craftsmanship put into each card.  And the thanks goes to every one of our contributors!  We could not make such an impact on so many lives without the support of each and every one of you.

We look forward to another great year.  And we continue to say "thank you, thank you, thank you"!!  We appreciate each and every one of you.

- Martie, Tom, Susan and Susan

Request For "Miss You", "Love You", Cards For Kids and More

From Our Hearts has had requests for cards in the past (mostly kids cards), and here is another that has been received from one of our contacts in Afghanistan - Miss You, Love You and cards for kids are in demand and in short supply - can we send more?  We are running low on these types of cards and can use help -

At the present time, we are also running low and can use the following:

Anniversary

Sympathy

Wedding

Thinking of You

Thank You

And of course, VALENTINES!  We have been busy at the home office designing cards and kits - as we have only 4 boxes of Valentines on the shelves - and we need many, many more - our thanks to Anne H and Susan T for taking the time to design cards and cut the paper and ribbon!!! Our thanks, too, to all our contributors who have sent us the supplies we use to make the cards - we could not do it without YOUR help.  And one more thank you - to Angie J who takes the card kits home to assemble them --- OH, we almost forgot to thank Tom, Martie's husband, for taking such good care of us while we work!!

Happy Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving Day, we wanted to say "Thanks" to all of you for your support this past year.  From Our Hearts has mailed out over 93,000 cards in 2012, over 14,000 of this number were Christmas cards.  You have brought many smiles and helped to boost morale to our deployed troops.   We couldn't have done it without your assistance. 

Our thoughts and prayers to our brave soldiers who have to be so far from their loved ones this holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Susan F

Martie and Tom S

Susan T

From Our Hearts Stats

A quick update as we have mailed out another big batch of cards - the remaining holiday cards and some thank you boxes, too.

We are thrilled with the response we have received from so many of you!  As noted below, we have mailed 93,259 cards this year - WOW!  This puts us at over 316,000 cards mailed since our inception.  Thanks to everyone who is touching so many lives in a positive way!

	2010		2011		2012
	cards	#boxes	cards	#boxes	cards	#boxes
January	8859	30	16002	57	9900	36
February	5766	23	1990	7	10550	41
March	5493	20	16400	59	10325	37
April	3000	10	2858	10	592	2
May	8680	30	10735	38	10070	37
June	2475	9	6720	24	1672	6
July	4605	16	6275	22	620	2
August	4840	17	8874	31	10735	38
September	14550	52	14025	50	11530	41
October	5463	16	2614	13	11080	39
November	20020	68	19702	71	16185	58
December	2040	7	10000	37
Totals:	85791	298	116195	419	93259	337

Happy Veterans Day From Our Hearts

From the board members of From Our Hearts and the thousands of volunteers across the country who help us to send our handcrafted cards, we thank all our veterans for their service to our country.  And, to those currently serving, we thank each and every one of you for keeping our country safe and for your dedicated and loyal service to our country.  We are indebted to each and every one of you!

Update On From Our Hearts' Progress

All but 10 boxes of holiday cards have been shipped out - and time to update everyone on the progress made so far this year.  We still have the month of December to go.  We thank EVERYONE who has contributed to us this year, so far - we are not finished as Valentines are going out on or about January 2 and we are in need of MANY -

Here are the stats, and again, we thank everyone who contributes cards, funds, and supplies!  These figures are a result of YOUR effort!  (Postage costs to mail them: $3,959, and we have shipped over 305,235 cards since From Our Hearts began!)

boxes boxes YTD cards cards YTD Jan 36 36 9900 9900 Feb 41 77 10550 20450 March 37 114 10325 30775 April 2 116 592 31367 May 37 153 10070 41437 June 6 159 1672 43109 July 2 161 620 43729 Aug 38 199 10735 54464 Sept 38 237 10995 65459 Oct 34 271 9815 75274 Nov 26 297 7135 82409 Dec TOTAL: 82409

 

Thank You, Thank You! 10 More Boxes To Ship

Our thanks to all who continue to mail holiday cards - we received over 800 this past week!

We appreciate the contributions received from:

Ruth C - Norman, OK

Jacqueline M - Beacon, NY

Brenda R and MA - Texas City, TX

Rosemary C - Maquon, IL

Roxie A - Duarte, CA

Karen K - Artist & Display - Milwaukee, WI

and

Karen W - Crest Hill, IL

We estimate another 10 boxes will be created; we will know more on Monday when we box them up.  Again, our thanks to all and keep the cards coming!!