Special Request from Our Illinois Volunteer

Janet Bailey here, your volunteer from Illinois. I have a special request for our kids from one of my hospitals that has 137 beds. Streamwood has requested cards with NO embellishments.  No popups, sequins, gems, buttons, ribbons, or anything that might be pulled off and swallowed.  Glitter glue is ok as long as it's non toxic.  Layers are fine, but everything needs to be flat.  When they first made this request, I thought it would be hard, but I pulled out a number of these cards from what I have on hand and they're beautiful!  I don't need all my cards this way, but I need quite a few since this hospital is so large!

(Edited to Add: Janet can use many more cards than the other locations as she has three large hospitals with many kids. So if you like to make lots and lots of cards, please send to Janet's address. The other new locations are happy to receive your cards as well.)

I am definitely ready for more Fall & Thanksgiving cards so if you have any already made, please ship them to me!   Plus all our hospitals are looking for Christmas and Winter themed cards. Remember that at Christmas and all major holidays, we like to have enough cards for the kids to all receive one, and to share with their parents,siblings and medical staff.  If there is enough, they could also send a holiday card to loved ones they are missing. So please while making these cards for our kids, make some that are without embellishments for these special kids at Streamwood. 

We appropriate every one of our card makers no matter how many cards you send!  Thank you for your dedication to our kids! 

Janet Bailey

11722 Parkway Dr

Apt 6

Roscoe  IL  61073 

SAS4Kids Is Continuing to GROW!

I am so excited to share that another volunteer and children's hospital is being announced today! Anne Slattery has stepped up and is going to be accepting your boxes of handmade cards to share with the children at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children (Philadelphia). This is what Anne had to say about the hospital:

Name of Hospital: St. Christopher's Hospital for Children (Philadelphia)
They have about 120 kids 3-6 year olds about 30; 7-12 year olds about 40 and they have a lot of teens age 13+ about 50.
They are looking to get started ASAP. I will send her what I have right now which is only about 20 cards. She said that would be fine because she thinks this is going to go over big.

Anne's address is:
Anne Slattery 
1504 Morris St.
Bristol PA 19007

Please note the "lots of teens" part of the description above. Cards appropriate for teenagers are what we generally receive the least of, so keep them in mind when designing your cards. Anne will need every day cheer cards, some birthday and thank you cards, and lots of winter holiday cards so each child can receive one and also pick some out for loved ones they are missing while in the hospital over the holidays.

Please send your cards equally to the two newest addresses (see blogpost below.) We appreciate all the handmade cards received from you for our SAS4Kids kids!

Thank you Anne and Angie!!

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen 

Yeah- Another Hospital Full of Kids to Cheer!

We are happy to announce another volunteer has stepped up and will be accepting your handmade cards for kids in another children's hospital! Angie Murphy (see her smiling face on the side of the blog) has graciously volunteered her time and energy to receive your boxes of cards, sort and deliver them to kids in the nearby Children's of Alabama children's hospital! Here is Angie's address that you can start sending cards to right away:

Angie Murphy
250 Gablewood Drive
Montevallo, AL 35115-8936

We have been contacted by several other potential volunteers who are now in the process of asking local children's hospitals if they would like to receive your handmade cards. Some hosptials have restrictions against accepting anything from outside volunteers, so we can never just assume a particular hospital will be a good fit for SAS4Kids. But most are thrilled to accept your cards to cheer the kids and their families. So we are hoping to be announcing some more new volunteers and hospitals soon.

If you have a box of Halloween/Fall cards ready to go, it would be OK to send to Angie or the other active addresses listed here (except Sybrina.) But if not, your next box can definitely include holiday and Christmas cards so every child in our hospitals receives one and is able to choose some for family and friends they are missing that time of your.

Thanks Angie for volunteering! And thanks to all of you who make and send in your cards for our kids!

Stamping smiles 4 our kids, Karen

Update on Current Needs - Can you Volunteer?

What we really need is more volunteers and more hospitals full of kids to cheer with all the wonderful cards we are receiving! Most of our locations have been overwhelmed with the generous card donations they have been receiving. We are assuming many former OWH cardmakers are looking for a new charitable organization to send their cards to. But to be honest, we do not have the need for the numbers of cards that were being sent for our servicemen and women overseas by the OWH organization.

**If you live close to a children's hospital (or two) and would be willing to accept boxes of cards sent to your address, label and count them and then bring to the hospital(s) every so often, please send me an email via the contact button on the side of the blog.**

In the meantime, Sybrina has enough cards to last into November. At that time, you could send some Christmas and Winter cards her way. Lee Ann is happy to accept any cards you can send to her address, and this time of year would be needing fall and winter holiday cards. Janet is set for awhile too, but would like Christmas cards early so she can get boxes sent to all her hospitals. If you can, Janet could use help with her mailing expenses- those boxes are quite expensive to mail.

Of course, none of us will discard or turn away any cards received. If the cards are received too late or too many are received for a particular holiday or category, we will save for the next year or box. Both I and NanaConnie have small hospitals and have enough cards for quite a while already at our locations.

Thank you all for your generous support. We hope to announce many more children's hospitals full of kids we can cheer because we sure do not want to turn any of your wonderful cards away.

Sincerely, Karen SAS4Kids