From Our Hearts

From Our Hearts Stamping At The Office

Recently, some of our local volunteers gathered at our office and took a break from the "normal" work of checking in boxes and filling boxes to ship out to stamp and create Christmas cards for our troops.  A welcomed diversion - and they had fun!

Using donated card stock, paper and supplies, they created many cards that were included in the 70+ boxes that were mailed off last month.

Seated to the left is Anne H and to her right is Sue S, both who create "card kits" with our donated supplies for our local stamping events we hold at the library and the retirement center.  On the right is Susan T, our VP of Operations.  Below, the cards they made - and many of each type.

We thought we would share some of the cards made locally!

And we have our contributors to thank - as the supplies were all donated, including the double sided tape.

And this includes the ink - as many have donated ink pads and re-inkers, too.

Our thanks to everyone for the help given to us!

And our thanks to our local volunteers who help us on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.  We could not operate without THEIR support!

Sugar Grove Stampers Contribute

From Sugar Grove, Illinois, Illinois, we received a box of 100 cards from Diana B.  Inside, we found many birthday and sympathy cards...

and many patriotic cards, too.

Nicely made, we know that the will be well received... and we appreciate receiving the sympathy cards as we don't get many of these!

The next Sugar Grove contributor none other than our official volunteer, Julie Wilson - and as can be expected, she has been busy!  3 boxes, this time, arrived on our doorstep.   441 cards, plus lots of many "extras" that were donated to our effort.

Love the "Love our troops!" on the outside of the boxes, Julie!

And the cards?  Mostly Christmas - and we NEED so many of them, as this is our biggest shipment of the year!

And Halloween was her next focus, 145 of them!  These are to be mailed out early next week.

Fall cards are going to be mailed with the Halloween and Thanksgiving cards.

A close up of some of her creations...

And a photo some of what we pulled out of her boxes.

More cards - you can see the quality that Julie sends.

And this is a shot of what her box looked like when we opened it.  Some stamp sets, embellishments, cardstock and more that she mailed to us.

We thank Julie for ALL that she does for From Our Hearts!!!

 

 

Local Volunteer, Sue S., donates 71 Cards!

 
Sue S. is from Holts Summit, MO and is one of our local volunteers. She creates card packets for our local events, helps us with our card shipments, readies cards for shipments (cards that come with no envelopes) and even finds time to create cards to donate!  In May, Sue donated 71 beautiful cards. Thank you, Sue, for all you do!

 

YOU are making a difference ...

One hand-stamped card at a time!

 

 

Sue's Creations - Card Kits

A few days ago, we mentioned that one of our local volunteers, Sue S, creates "card kits" for our use at our local stamping events for the troops.  We are showing some of her recent contributions.

8, 10, 12, 15, 20 or 25 cards - or even 40, all of the same design are cut and prepared but NOT ASSEMBLED.

Some of the stamping is pre-done - if the card requires it as we don't always know the skill level of those who will show up to help support our troops!

The card designs do not have to be difficult.  Many times, simplicity makes for an elegant card.

Sue prepared many designs and ultimately, over 100 cards.  We typically prepare for 200 cards to be made at each regular monthly event.  For our "big" annual fundraisers, we prep for 1200+ cards.

We appreciate Sue doing this for us as we find that many times we are preparing into the wee hours of the morning as there are just not enough hours in each day to get everything done.

And of course, Sue's contributions to FOH are tax deductible.

If you are interested in helping to contribute in this way, please contact us!

Below, we took a candid snapshot of Sue at our last library event.  Sue does come and create cards with us, too!  Sue is on the left.

Correspondence

From Our Hearts receives e-mails, letters and cards regularly from our service men and women and their families.  Nearly every one is answered - only those that have no return address or those received from individuals who indicate they are going home soon don't get a reply.

We are fortunate to have the assistance of Carolyn P from California, MO - a lovely lady whose passion is the written word and who has elegant handwriting.  She carefully crafts a letter in response to each card and letter received.  She also sends thank you cards on our behalf.  Carolyn is a valued volunteer of From Our Hearts.

Just today, we received the following letter:

Dear Martie:

I'm glad to hear from you again.  I always write back to whoever touches my heart.  And those who take the time to write the soldiers is a blessing.  For some never get any mail.  So thank you very much.  My tour is up in July and I'm looking forward to seeing my family again.

God Bless,

Jodi

A simple thing - the written word - the thought to send a card.

We want to share with you the impact we make; and we appreciate all that everyone does to help us to make a difference, one card at a time.

2nd Annual Christmas in August Event A Tremendous Success

Our heartfelt thanks to Bev Penick (pictured below, center) who orchestrated this big event at the Drury Inn on August 15 on behalf of From Our Hearts.  Susan Troxel, our VP of Operations, joined us - she is pictured on the left, and Meghan M, on the right, was a tremendous "right hand" to Bev.

Julie Wilson, our volunteer in Sugar Grove, drove down and helped to set up and brought a couple of thousand of cards to make - and some already made for us to take back to Jefferson City - a great way for her to save on postage!

She is pictured below, on the right - with Martie.

It was great to finally meet Julie!

We drove up early to help set up - only to find the room all ready!  That is efficiency!

Above, Bev is putting the final touches on the give away table.

The doors opened, and much to Martie's suprise, her cousins showed up to support the troops!  None had ever stamped before, but they follow From Our Heart's blog and had noted the date and time of Bev's event!

All in all, over 100 individuals, young and young at heart, came to stamp!

Fun was had by all. . .

And there was a piece of a card to be made by each and every participant.

Julie's daughter was in charge of "stuffing" the cards...

Even the men who showed up dug in and helped.  Most were veterans - many military showed up as Scott AFB is very close by.

Giving away the freebies is always a fun time!

Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and even a few all ocassion cards were made.

Cards awaiting the final packaging . . . and the count?

3033 cards! - How many boxes of cards does this equate to?  Ten!!!

And at the end of the day, all were loaded into Martie's car - and headed to Jefferson City!

We appreciate the time, talent, and effort that went into holding this event - it took many hours of work and coordination on Bev and her demonstrator/friends' part and to the Drury Inn for donating their ballroom space -

And to Julie for her contribution of so many cards and supplies that she brought and donated as well (and to those who made the trip with her from the Sugar Grove area!) -

We thank you all!  Our servicemen and women are benefiting from all your hard work!!!

We can't wait for the 3rd annual event next year!

 

 

Ruth C is at it Again!

This time, 541 cards were carefully packed up and shipped our way from our volunteer in Norman, OK -

We can always count on Ruth to pack her boxes tightly and we simply have to take each package out and place them in the appropriate "holding" boxes - as they are identified by type of card.

This month, she sends us 2 boxes:

Always with "angel mail cards for the troops" on the outside - we know these are Ruth's boxes!

Ruth sends us an inventory sheet inside each box so we know what types of cards are inside each one.

This shipment included not only 291 Christmas/holiday cards, but birthday, thinking of you, friendship, Valentine's Day (this is our next big shipment!) and Thanksgiving cards, too.  Some Halloween cards were included, and these will be held until next year.

Here is a sampling of her cards.

Nice cards, made at the many card making events she holds every month.

Ruth even included pens for us to ship over - after all, our troops need pens to WRITE in these beautiful cards!

Our thanks to Ruth and to all her volunteer card makers!

 

Julie in Sugar Grove Has Been Busy!

She is on the go for From Our Hearts, holding card making events, fund raisers and otherwise collecting cards and contributions on our behalf.

We don't know where she finds the energy!

Meet Julie - pictured here with Martie in August (we finally met at Bev's Christmas in August event in O'Fallon, IL).

This month, Julie shipped 3 large boxes of cards.

Final count?  1,473 cards!

Not only were cards made at her Oct 3 card making event, but card contributions were collected from the following stampers:

Denise W - 481 cards

Karen W - 559 cards

Lisa B - 20 cards

Ann L - 24 cards

Diana B - 80 cards

Here is a sampling of the cards she sent.

It took us a while to get to the bottom of her boxes (all three of them!)

 
We had fun taking out each and every card, admiring their creativity.

We finally found the bottom of the box!

Julie held Lia Sophia jewelry fundraisers, donated funds from 2 card workshops she held in her home, and raised money at her Oct 3 card making event, sending the funds our way to help with postage.

We thank each and every individual contributor and those who help Julie in Sugar Grove.

Julie writes:

"I do not know how you can possibly keep up with all the cards being shipped to you.  I had a hard time just keeping up with this donation!  But what a wonderful job . . . I mean TREAT it is!"

Our sentiments exactly Julie!  It is a treat receiving each and every box of cards that arrive!

 

Volunteers in Topeka Ship over 1300 Cards In October

Just about every card in this box received the beginning of the month contained Thanksgiving cards - 535 cards total!

Regina carefully packs her cards tightly so they arrive in Jefferson City in great shape.

Later in the month, 2 more boxes arrived, ALL holiday cards!  805 cards total . . .

Their work is exquisite.  You would never know that most of the card fronts were in some need of repair.  Most are simply tossed in boxes and mailed to us.  This causes them to shift in transit or become entangled and the layers become dislodged or damaged.  Regina and her volunteers carefully take each front apart, if necessary, and replace the layers, restamp images, add ribbon or otherwise restore the card fronts and attach them to card bases.

And beautiful cards are the result!

We appreciate your card front donations.  Recycle, reuse... Dig out those card fronts and send them our way!  Our servicemen and women appreciate the cards we are able to send to them - and as we always say, card fronts never go out of style!!!

Regina and her volunteers even found the time to create some Christmas cards and donated them to our effort!  How do they find the time?

They are beautiful, don't you think?

Our many thanks to Regina and her volunteers.  We appreciate all you do for From Our Hearts!

#1 Volunteer -- Tom Shea is Recovering from Surgery!

Hello everyone! If you have been following the From Our Hearts Blog for long, you will have seen and read about Martie's husband, Tom Shea (shown in the photo at right)! He is the #1 Volunteer for From Our Hearts. Tom is always available to help in whatever way he can ... stuffing envelopes, stacking boxes, delivering to the post office, you name it ... Tom has done it.

Tom had Triple By-Pass Surgery earlier this week and is recovering right on schedule. Martie has been surrounded by her friends and family who have been making sure she has been taken care of. Wouldn't it be nice to flood the PO box with well wishes from all the supporters of From Our Hearts! What a great surprise that would be to Tom as he returns home from the hospital and begins his lengthy recovery! For a family whose entire lives revolve around providing cards for others. what a blessing it would be for them to be on the receiving end!

If you wish to send a card to Tom and/or Martie, you may do so at:

From Our Hearts
PO Box 105243
Jefferson City, MO 65110