Cardz for Kidz! Uplifting Spirits, One Card at a Time: October 2015

Thursday, October 29, 2015

That's Not Fair

We decided that it was time to modify our new verb. Now we’ll simply call it Stream (-ing, -ed, -s). For example, we could say “that group has been streaming it!” As we highlighted in our blog post New Definition, that verb refers to a group that consistently makes cards every quarter without us requesting that they do so. The group with the most consecutive quarters started with Arrowstream, which is the group that actually sparked the verb. Mindshare followed, and is currently with Millward Brown.

Why, you might ask? As always, we’re going to be 100% open and honest. As discussed in the blog post, Working Together, and as you can see below, Millward Brown had multiple offices across the United States making cards together.

And, we received a set of cards made by their offices in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala!

That’s a total of nearly 10 different offices in 4 different countries that have made cards!!!

“THAT’S CHEATING” is what some groups may think. Understood. Mindshare AND Arrowstream set their records of 5+ quarters with simply one office! But we have to say one benefit of Millward Brown is they’ve been able to inspire several offices to make cards - even though the cards may not be delivered to children in their cities. So while other groups may look at MB’s record and say ‘THAT’S NOT FAIR’, we’re just simply amazed at how they’ve worked together to produce smiles!!!

#ThatsNotFair #UpliftingSpirits

Stream - Independently hosting Cardz for Kidz! events without any member of the organization checking in to see if they are still interested and/or requesting cards for a special event.

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!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Now You Know

Do you have any idea of ALL the different reasons kids are admitted into the hospital? There’s a wide array of conditions children are born with or develop, but as touched on in a prior post, there are accidents too!

Here are some of the stories we’ve received that we’ve included in previous blog posts:

With all those stories we decided to do some Google searching for other facts and stories about kids.

Now, we know we can’t reach ALL children who are disheartened, but our goal is to reach AS MANY as possible. Unfortunately the amount of kids who need your cards is consistently growing. Before this post, did you know how much we need your help? Well…..NOW YOU KNOW!

Check out our “How-To” page to get ideas and/or our “Donate” page to help cover our other expenses. Thanks in advance for your help!

#NowYouKnow #UpliftingSpirits #EveryCardCounts

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Accidentally on Purpose

Here are some of Cardz for Kidz! most impressive factors:

We’ve been mentioned on Twitter by global executives
Some of the most influential companies (e.g. Google) have participated
We’ve received cards from 3 different continents
We’ve produced over 15,000 cards!!

Pretty impressive, right?!?!

Thinking about it, you’d imagine this was sparked by some professionals who went to Indiana University for Masters in non-profit management OR a group of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit nurses with decades of experience working with potentially disheartened children.

Unfortunately or fortunately, neither of those are correct. Actually, it was started by a guy who was stressed about being too busy. During his “free time”, he was volunteering at the city’s largest pediatric hospital, one of the team leaders at a children’s church, AND planning a national conference for young adults across the country, for which he had to plan site-seeing, community service, and in-house activities. At one point, he thought, ‘I wish I could just pull all of my extracurricular activities together.’ Then, it hit him. Why not have these young adults work with the kids from the church to make cards for the kids at the hospital?!?! He did, and it was a hit with everyone. Next, he took it to his job. Then, he got his sister company involved. In May 2014, Cardz for Kidz! officially became a 501 (c)(3) certified non-profit.

Usually, when people are starting a non-profit or a small businesses, it’s planned out. They have an idea and either work independently or with a team to discover the next steps to accomplish their mission and become successful. This is the backbone to obtain notoriety, growth, and support from either investors or participants. That’s how it’s “supposed” to work. But, Cardz for Kidz! broke the rules!

Currently, Cardz for Kidz! has grown to impact children in 7 different countries. But, we’re not giving the founder and/or “staff” too much credit, because it’s the people who execute these events that are really ESSENTIAL. This is how Cardz for Kidz! operates: interested participants reach out via email to info@cardzforkidz.org or fill out the information section on www.cardzforkidz.org/contactus Then, those people set up a “card-making” event at their jobs, schools, or within community groups. They purchase the supplies, provide instructions on the content on the cards (i.e. what not to write on the cards), select the Top 10, then ship all the cards to the “staff” at Cardz for Kidz!. You see, they’re really doing all the heavy lifting! #ForeverThankful

Over the past 5 years, Cardz for Kidz! has organically grown with over 30 groups participating. Thanks to a team effort, this organization is now an official certified non-profit. However, to be 100% open and honest, none of this was planned during the first few events! But, this non-profit that was ACCIDENTALLY STARTED ON PURPOSE has made an impact on thousands and thousands of people. So, please consider making an “accident” soon, too!

#AccidentallyOnPurpose #UpliftingSpirits

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Long Term.Continual Impact

As touched as we were in the prior post, Carry a Bit More, we had a great time delivering some of the cards to a hospital in Nigeria. Also, as described in that post, the majority of our international deliveries are directly sparked from someone we knew who hand delivered those cards in other countries. Now we already described what we want to be, When We Grow Up, but we figure since we’ve only been around 5 years so we’re still a child. Therefore, it is OK to set a dream for our adolescent years! :)

Although we just received a set of cards from THREE of Millward Brown’s offices in Central America, the VAST majority of our cards are made AND delivered right here in the United States. The only way we can get cards to the majority of the international destinations is through personal delivery. So we’re asking folks to let us know when they’re traveling abroad. That’s how we sent cards to 5 of the 7 countries we’ve reached; Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico (unfortunately we weren’t able to get pictures from Colombia).

So our long term dream is to be able to start a scholarship for kids who’ve been hospitalized and are trying to go to college, but in the short term, we’d love to independently launch Cardz for Kidz! in multiple countries. With that in place, we wouldn’t ask people in Central America to pay for postage to ship their cards to us directly here in the States. We wouldn’t have to keep our fingers crossed that someone remembers to contact us when they’re traveling. Just like here in the United States, kids across the globe could be impacted on a regular basis.

Don’t worry, we understand that not everyone can take running this non-profit as serious as our team does. So maybe they wouldn’t track stats like in Q2 2015, 33.3% of cards were made by B-to-B companies? And 462 cards were sent to kids in the Midwest in Q1 2015. Or on average, dating back to Q4 2011, we’ve experienced a 31% growth in the amount of cards made per quarter. That’s OK!! If we could simply have someone to collect the cards, double check them, then send them to a hospital in their area that’d be great. Now it’d be perfect if they sent a picture of the Top 10 and told us the exact amount made per group, but we understand that’s a bit over the top! :)

In summary, our immediate goal is to be able to work with individuals/groups in various countries to make a LONG TERM/CONTINUAL IMPACT on kids across the globe.

#LongTermContinualImpact #UpliftingSpirits

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Carry A Bit More

Our Mission: “Cardz for Kidz! is an organization dedicated to uplifting the spirits of hospitalized and/or traumatized children across the globe by delivering inspiring homemade cards!”

….ACROSS THE GLOBE….this blog post is dedicated to that portion of our mission statement. As touched on in a prior blog post, Both Inside and Out, we’ve been shipping cards to MANY countries. For example, in August, we sent cards to children in the Oncology and Neurology floors at the National Institute of Pediatrics (INP) in Mexico City and to the pediatric patients at Living Word Hospital in Aba, Nigeria.

To be honest, from what we heard we sparked a slight disagreement at Living Word! J That location is a school for children and has a hospital which serves pediatric patients ranging from babies to adolescents. The head of the hospital took us on a tour and first we delivered some Happy Birthday cards to several of the newborn babies.

Later we went to deliver some cards to other pediatric patients.

We provided a total of 70 cards and told them they could deliver them to new patients when they arrive. Later we walked with the head of the hospital and met with the director of the school - the school WANTED some cards for their students too. Unfortunately for her, the hospital claimed dibs and were NOT going to give up their cards. We promised the school we’d bring another batch soon.

Usually, we have to ship all of our cards to the hospitals. In fact, we recently held a fundraiser, Pledge Allegiance, in order to raise funds to help with our shipping fees. Can you imagine the cost of shipping cards to Mexico AND Nigeria? How confident are you that big packages would successfully make it to hospitals in those countries? That’s a lot to worry about. Thankfully, we didn’t have to! It helps to have connections - Dr. Adiele Nwankwo and Rebeca Gutiérrez took a total of 120 cards in their carry-ons with them during their international trips. We are grateful for their help.

Quick favor. Take a look at our website, www.cardzforkidz.org and click on the map and drag it over to left to see the special smile images. Those 4 destinations in Africa were all hand delivered . In addition, for our cards to Haiti, we send the cards to a hospital in Florida and their staff take them ontheir next trip to Haiti.

Now we can say we’ve delivered cards to 7 different countries and that’s primarily driven by people delivering the cards during their trips.

If you go back to the map on our homepage you’ll find an image of hospitals/shelters in the USA, Haiti, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, and Mexico. We know what you’re thinking, “that’s only 6 countries and 6 is less than 7.” For some background, a friend volunteered to take a set of cards with them during their trip to Colombia. Their tour guide highlighted how there was a hospital near his house and how those would be perfect. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a hold of him to find the name of the hospital. So we know the country and area, but since we don’t know the EXACT hospital we didn’t include it – 100% open and honest.

We’re consistently trying to reach kids across the globe. So during your next international trip, please let us know if you can CARRY A BIT MORE in your carry on bag!

#CarryABitMore #UpliftingSpirits