No Thanks Needed

Here we go again….starting another blog post with more 100% honesty. Here’s an explanation of why the folks behind the scenes of Cardz for Kidz! put the work in…..return on investment. We work to make sure it’s VERY EASY for anyone and everyone to participate. We guarantee the hospitals we’ll double check EACH AND EVERY card we receive (11,089 as of 3/4/14) so all they’ll have to do is open the package and hand it to a child. Then we make sure the participants know it’s 100% FREE to participate. And, if they make cards, they can get their logo up on our site for some free PR and recognition. To try and ease the process, when we designed the website we worked with the developers to make sure potential participants could download everything they’d need, http://cardzforkidz.org/how-to. We had a discussion about how it’s okay if they make it so the Helpful Info, Supplies and Reminders were all PDFs, but it’s a must that the Slideshow can be downloaded into a PowerPoint with one click! Although we’ve put in a bunch of work to ease the process, we’re always looking for ways to make it easy and effective for people to make AND receive cards.

We’re perfectly satisfied with doing all that work and remaining behind the scenes based on the “return on investment”…..seeing hundreds of smiles! Although it’s tricky to notice because we’re always the ones holding the camera in all the pics on Facebook, thankfully we’ve been there to experience each and every smile by each child and every “artist”. We feel seeing those hundreds of smiles, receiving pics from global destinations, and receiving the thank you cards makes it clear we’re appreciated and our investments are worth it!

So, now does it make sense why we’re willing to travel and put in a BUNCH of time??? Hope so. Now, we’ll need you to help us understand why these guys were NOT disappointed. Here’s an introduction to the last three “artists” who came to make cards at Lurie:

Moving from left to right:

• Steve Thompson- from the beginning he expressed a high interest in Cardz for Kidz!. His most recent donation covered our shipping costs to 9 different hospitals this quarter!
• Barry Weinberg- Not sure if you can see it in the picture, but yes, he’s wearing a Cardz for Kidz! t-shirt. That’s because he’s been helpful behind the scenes throughout the entire process. He’s made impacts ranging from sponsoring large corporate events to making a cards in his free time.
• Arron Davis- Do you notice the logo on Barry’s shirt, our website, business cards and everywhere else? In his free time, Arron designed some options for us then after we selected our favorite, he made the official digital copy of our logo. Now it’s officially ours.

Okay so their background is pretty impressive, but what we love the most is how they were still passionate about “investing” more, even though there was no immediate “return”. Since its flu season families are not allowed to bring patients’ siblings to Lurie at all. Based on that restriction the playroom is often a bit slower on the weekends when parents will likely have to be with other siblings. On top of that several pediatric patients have potentially contagious ailments so they cannot leave their rooms.

During their trip to Lurie last Sunday only a couple kids entered the playroom at all. The kids were so young and were draped with family members so our guys were not able to interact with them much. Instead of complaining about traveling all the way to downtown Chicago ranging from out in the suburbs of Chicago to Toledo, OH these guys got to work. We worked with the Child Life staff and received a list of ALL the patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). These guys worked with a couple volunteers, stayed past our original 2:30-4pm time frame, and made a custom card – addressed to the individual patient – for each child in the PICU. 

Although those guys cannot provide details or describe the smiles of the recipients, we can. The children AND the nurses were VERY excited they got a card that was actually made just for them.

The kids were excited to receive the cards, and the simple thought of kids being happy to receive them, inspired our artists to put in the extra time.

Now we need you to keep your fingers crossed that we don’t burn any bridges with this post! Throughout the event we were trying to apologize that they weren’t able to interact with more kids and remind them how grateful we were, but they made it clear that there was NO THANKS NEEDED and they were happy to help. Sorry. We broke the rules. We had to officially thank you!

#NoThanksNeeded #UpliftingSpirits

To see more pictures and stories please check out our website www.cardzforkidz.org, like us on Facebook page, follow us on Twitter , visit our Google+ page, or visit our LinkedIn page! Also, check out some of our videos on YouTube!