SAS4Kids is Growing Again!!

Send a Smile 4 Kids is thrilled to announce today that we have added  four more Children's Hospitals where your donated cards can help cheer the kids who are inpatient, AND two more addresses you can choose to send your cards to! Sarah Taylor, who is a member of our design team, has graciously volunteered to accept packages of donated cards and will be delivering them to the children at the following hospitals:

University of Iowa Children's Hospital, Iowa City, Iowa

Blank Children's Hospital, Des Moines, Iowa

Sandford Children's Hospital, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Next time you have any cards appropriate for children, please send them to this address:

SAS4Kids C/O Sarah Taylor

3419 7th Ave.

Sioux City, Iowa 51106

Send a Smile 4 Kids (Canada) is also growing! They have added another address to mail your cards to and one more hospital as well. Lynette Pinno will be collecting your donated cards and giving them to the children at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta.

If you are in Canada or overseas, please send them to either of our Canadian addresses:

SAS4Kids (Canada) c/o Shelley Dureau

2525 Cable Court

Coquitlam, BC

V3H 3G1

Canada  OR

SAS4K (Canada) c/o Lynnette Pinno
Box 1256
Camrose, Alberta
T4V 1X2

Holiday cards can still be sent to the original Wisconsin address. Of course, any of the addresses are fine to send your donated cards to at any time, but we would like to encourage you to help our new hospitals the most right now.

A NOTE TO READERS FROM CARDMAKER MAGAZINE:  SAS4Kids is going to be the featured charitable organization in the Readers Reach Out section of Cardmaker Magazine on stands in December 2011 and we are thrilled to be chosen and to receive your cards! The new addresses and hospitals added here were announced after the deadline for this issue. Your Valentines and other cards can be sent to any of our addresses, but we encourage you to support our newest locations and hospitals.

Right now, we are asking for your winter and holiday cards so that every child in all these hospitals over the holiday season will receive a handmade card to help cheer them and their family. Thank you to all who have donated so far, and we look forward to receiving and distributing your cards to our kids! 

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen 

Welcoming Send a Smile 4 Kids (Canada)!!

We are thrilled today to welcome our Canadian partner SEND A SMILE 4 KIDS (CANADA) to our cause!  SAS4Kids is joining up with Cards for Kids and together we are going to help cheer even more children who are inpatient in Children’s Hospitals!

I found out about Cards for Kids when I asked Feline Playful (the best challenge blog list ever!!) to list SAS4Kids in their RAK section. I noticed how similar it was to SAS4Kids and emailed Shelley Dureau about that. We want to cheer as many kids as possible, so when the time was right, I asked if she wanted to team up. Here is what Shelley has to say about that:

“As a crafter, I am frequently inspired by the projects I see out in blogland and I must admit to being an avid scrap-lifter of ideas and designs. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that Send A Smile 4 Kids (Canada) started because of someone else’s idea. When I first saw SAS4Kids, my initial thought was "what a great idea, I'll send some of my cards". My next thought was "Why spend money on postage to the U.S. when there's a Children's Hospital right here in Vancouver that would appreciate cards". I suggested setting up a Canadian branch of SAS4Kids but the timing wasn’t right; so a quick email to B.C. Children's Hospital and a follow-up telephone conversation and Cards for Kids was born. I kept in touch with SAS4Kids though in hopes that one day we could partner together. And, yay, that day has arrived! Effective today, Cards for Kids has officially become Send A Smile 4 Kids (Canada)!!! I’m so excited to be part of this wonderful charity and look forward to sending a lot smiles to kids in the U.S. and Canada!”

Now when you get a package of cards ready to send in, you have two addresses to choose from. If you are from Canada or overseas, or anywhere, you can send to my Wisconsin address OR our Canadian partner, Send a Smile 4 Kids (Canada) at:

SAS4Kids (Canada) c/o Shelley Dureau

2525 Cable Court

Coquitlam, BC

V3H 3G1

Canada

You can email Shelley at: cardsforkidscanada@yahoo.ca   and her blog is here: http://sendasmile4kidscanada.blogspot.com/

We have their blog badge on the side of this page and on the challenge page that you can click on anytime to visit Send a Smile 4 Kids (Canada).  Please take a look at the great job Shelley did re-branding her blog to match ours and leave a welcoming comment for her when you are there.

Welcome Canadian friends and thanks to all who help to put smiles on our kids faces!

Stamping smiles 4 Kids, Karen 

Please help us Shower Debby with Thoughts and Prayers and Cards

About a month ago, one of our SAS4Kids team members, Debby Walker, was in an accident and sustained severe head trauma. After she came out of her coma she has had amnesia. She is slowly remembering things including how much she loves stamping and being on her design teams.  She is having motor skill issues as well and has started physical therapy.

Let’s shower her with thoughts and prayers and cards and let her know all of us are wishing her well. Here is her address:

Debby Walker

1805 Brownstone Blvd #301

Toledo OH 43614

I know stampers and crafters are giving and loving people and I hope you can take the time to send up some positive thoughts and then send Debby a card- just say you are an on line friend from Send a Smile 4 Kids.

Stamping smiles for Debby, Karen

A Surprise Card Drive for SAS4Kids!

What a lovely surprise we had this week! Stamping with the Dragon is hosting a card drive along with a challenge to make a card for a child for a birthday or holiday! Their blog with all the details can be found here. They are offering two great prizes - one for a birthday card and one for a holiday card. And they are encouraging any one who enters to send their card along with any others they may have for children to Send a Smile 4 Kids! They are honoring the birthday of Janette with this card drive and challenge, so Happy Birthday to Janette and THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Now is the time to be thinking about holiday cards for our kids. We would love to be able to give a fall or cute Halloween card and a Christmas or Happy Holidays card to each of the children who are in the Children's Hospitals on those days. And we do need to receive them well in advance to be sure to get them to the hospitals on time.

If any other blogs or organizations would like to co-ordinate with us for a card drive or challenge for our cause, we would be thrilled to hear from you.

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen