Cards for the Holidays

Here, Adaeze describes what she did in her own words:

For my project I spoke to two of my friends on phone that I need their help in crafting Christmas cards for our seniors living in an assisted living where I work. They were so excited about the idea and assured me they will support me. First, I created a platform for good team work, gave room for their opinions and suggestions. We shared ideas in our zoom meetings. Cathie suggested that she would like us to meet in her house and we discussed about the materials we needed. We agreed on what each one of us should provide. I went to Joan fabrics to buy plain cards, envelopes and all the writing materials; Cathie provided the stamps, old family Christmas cards for us to use as samples; and Heidi provided other materials for crafting the cards. It was challenging to meet due to our different work schedules and the restrictions in place due to the pandemic. We couldn’t spend more time as we scheduled. However, we gathered together just for two days for about an hour, and we were able to craft 60 Christmas cards which was below the 100 cards we initially planned. We used good stamps that had memorable Christmas messages for the cards. We wrote messages of hope, encouragement and joy that even though our residents may not have access to their families due to the current situation of Covid 19, they are not alone, we love them, and care for them. We distributed the cards to them. It was awesome to see them holding the cards so dearly like they won a gold medal. Most of them were crying when I explained the project to them, they blessed and prayed for me. My administrator took pictures of the cards to post it in the companies face book page and will write about my project in the next news digest that comes out every month. Everyone was happy and congratulated me for this kind of project.

Want some words of advice? Here are Adaeze’s tips for YOU:

Do something that you have passion for and is within your capacity. Earlier I wanted to craft Christmas cards and package small goodies bag for my residents at work. I later realized it will be beyond my capacity to accomplish since I am not raising any fund.
Make sure you get your family, close friends, and even colleagues at work involved. Create a platform where even friends of friends can be part of it through google meet, Zoom meeting and also send out messages as daily reminder about the project.
Set up a platform where people can make some donations if you feel the project is beyond your capacity. Post it on face book page, talk to people about it and encourage them to donate any amount they can.
Do something like crafting a card that will send a message of love and encouragement to our elders most especially those in long term care.
Give room for ideas, variety is the spice of life and through it you will learn new things
Look for Long term facilities around where you live and talk to them about your project or idea, they will grant you the opportunity to craft cards for the residents. They will appreciate it so much.
Make it fun! The project is fun.

Here is a link to Adaeze’s video!