In order to encourage creativity, very few guidelines are imposed on the making of
Holiday Project handmade greeting cards. The cards may be almost any size, and
the media used can be as simple as colored markers available at almost any grocery
or drug store. Some people use combinations of media such as markers, rubber stamps,
images cut from used or surplus store-bought greeting cards,
cut-out computer-generated images, pasted bits of ribbon or felt, etc.
Here are a few general suggestions on other matters:
Ideally the cards should be able to stand up if placed on a table, nightstand, etc.
Please don't use glitter-on-glue. The glitter tends to get all over everything. However, pre-mixed "Glitter Glue" (such as is made by Crayola) is fine.
Sentiments that imply that the recipients' circumstances are less than ideal (e.g., "Cheer Up!", "You are not forgotten", etc.) should be avoided.
Greetings should be generic so that they can be appropriate to almost anyone. (For example, a Christmas card that says "Merry Christmas" on the front and "Wishing you all the joy of the season" inside would be fine. More specific religious content should probably be avoided however. Similarly, a Mother's Day card that says "Happy Mother's Day" and "The Best to You on this Special Day" would be fine, but sentiments such as "To a Great Mom" should be avoided, since not everyone visited in connection with Mother's Day has been a mother.)
Please don't enclose or attach candy to the cards. (Logistically speaking, it's usually
not practical for the visit-volunteers to separate out such cards and determine which
recipients are permitted to have candy.)
It's preferable that the cards not be in envelopes. (Some of the recipients suffer
from advanced arthritis or other conditions that make the simple act of
removing a card from an envelope quite difficult.)
Please don't put a date on the cards. (We occasionally have a surplus of cards
for a given occasion, in which case we simply pack up the excess cards and
use them for the same holiday the next year.)
Cards may be signed by the persons making them, but they don't have to be. (When they are left unsigned, we have the volunteers making the visits sign them.) Any signature should probably include just the signer's first name.
Volunteers may either make the cards at home and deliver or mail them to Volunteer Houston:
Volunteer Houston
3015 Richmond, Suite 100
Houston, TX 77098
Phone: Walter Black, 713-964-0229
E-mail: wrb@volunteercenter.us
Persons for whom the Willowbrook Mall area is convenient can drop them
off to Donna Martin, the Activities Director at Heartland Healthcare Center,
about 2 blocks north of Willowbrook Mall.
Grace Care Center of Cypress
9602 Huffmeister
Houston, TX 77095
Phone: Donna Martin, 281-463-9001 or
E-mail: theholidayprojecthouston@gmail.com