Needs From: Volunteer Houston

ATTN: Holiday Card-making for The Holiday Project Visits - temporarily on hold since volunteers are being restricted from visiting nursing home residents due to the Coronavirus.   Holidays are the times for connecting … with family…friends…the community at large. Many people are cut off from this connection due to health problems, advanced age, or other circumstances. The Holiday Project provides volunteers with opportunities to let people in need know that they haven’t been forgotten and to brighten their lives by brightening their day! If you'd like to donate Holiday Cards, *you may drop them off, or mail them to: Reunion Court of Kingwood (before mailing cards, if possible, please email me pictures of your cards so I can post some on The Holiday Project’s Facebook page...to inspire others to create cards for nursing home residents!) ♥️ *Reunion Court of Kingwood Attn: Donna Martin 929 Rockmead Dr. Kingwood, Texas 77339 *You can also sign up for a scheduled visit if you want to personally pass out the cards you made to nursing home residents...see our volunteer posts for locations. Cards can also be dropped off at: Grace Care Center of Cypress 9602 Huffmeister, HOUSTON, 77095 Cards Needed for the Following Holidays in 2020: (any amount of cards donated by an individual volunteer or group is appreciated!) Upcoming 2020 Visit Dates and preferred deadline for cards: Valentine’s Sat. February 8th (Cards by Feb. 1st) Easter Sat. April 11th
(Cards by April 4th) Mother’s Day Sat. May 9th 
(Cards by May 2nd) Father’s Day Sat. June 20th
(Cards by June 13th) Grandparents Day Sat. Sept. 12th
(Cards by Sept. 5th) Thanksgiving Thursday Nov. 26th
(Cards by Nov 19th) Christmas Day Friday, Dec. 25
(Cards by Dec 18th) 2020 Valentine’s - need approx 500 cards 2020 Easter - need approx. 500 cards 2020 Mother's Day - need approx. 500 cards 2020 Father's Day - need approx. 500 cards 2020 Grandparent's Day - need approx. 500 cards 2020 Thanksgiving Day - need approx. 2,000 cards 2020 Christmas Day - need approx. 2,000 cards Card Guidelines: 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" or other similar sayings that are creative and/or festive inside would be fine.  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 should be signed by the persons making them. Any signature should probably include just the signer's first name or first names of group... Please Please Please do not put anything about the state of a residents health ...such as I hope you get well soon or hope your health improves...the residents aren’t all sick that live in long term care and for the short term rehab patients in skilled nursing facilities it is just too hard for volunteers to know who is in a facility for long term residence or short term rehab stay, so we just avoid anything health related!!  Questions - email Donna Martin at: theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com Thank you very much for your acts of kindness! 

ATTN: The Holiday Project Volunteer Visits have been temporarily cancelled due to the Coronavirus. 

 

Holidays are the times for connecting … with family…friends…the community at large. Many people are cut off from this connection due to health problems, advanced age, or other circumstances. The Holiday Project provides volunteers with opportunities to let people in need know that they haven’t been forgotten and to brighten their lives by brightening their day! You can make a difference!

If you would like to volunteer and brighten your own life, while you brighten the lives of nursing home or assisted living residents, please e-mail Holiday Project Coordinator, Donna Martin, at theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com (Donna can also help you make Holiday Project connections outside of the Houston area anywhere in the United States). In an effort to reach more facilities to visit and/or drop off handmade holiday cards in 2020, we are trying something different! In addition to scheduling specific facilities for holiday visits, we are inviting volunteers to search google and find a nursing home or two in your area. Email Donna, the name/names, their phone number and their address to: theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com. Donna will contact the activity director* to confirm your visit!  You can now choose other holidays throughout the year to plan a visit according to your schedule!  Together we CAN make a difference! LOVE.JOY.BLESSINGS. *Some facilities may require you to fill out a volunteer application prior to your visit if you are volunteering as an individual and not as a team! (FYI...You can recruit friends and family to join you to create a team and you can be the team leader...Donna can inform you of minimal team leader details).  Suggested Holidays in 2020, but remember other holiday requests are welcomed for visits and holiday cards... Valentine’s Day Saturday - February  8th Easter Saturday - April 11th   Mother’s Day Saturday - May 9th   Father’s Day Saturday - June 20th Grandparent’s Day Saturday - Sept. 12th Thanksgiving Day - Thursday, Nov. 26th Christmas Day - Friday, December 25th (FYI...Holiday Project Facility Partner for Visits and card drop off and Location Listed on This Posting... Reunion Court of Kingwood...available for visits and card drop off, among the other 167 facilities in the Greater Houston Area) 

Christmas Card Connections Update as of 12/17/2020

If you still want to make cards or if you have made cards and I have not made a connection for you yet, please see the information below....

I apologize but because of very serious complications of Covid with a family member, I am unable to continue making Holiday Project Christmas card connections.

I am now partnering with Edward Craft and he has agreed to receive and deliver our Holiday Project Christmas cards!   Check out his Facebook Page Edward Craft #HolidayCards4Seniors   You can mail your cards to arrive to him by December 23rd or meet up with him to give him your cards. He is personally delivering the cards to senior living communities.   Contact Edward by cell phone,  832-341-2882 or mail cards to him at:   Edward Craft The Village at Sugar Land 140 Eldridge Road, Suite H Sugar Land, Texas 77478   Edward is very willing to meet up with you to receive your cards.   Edward Craft 832-341-2882.   Thanks and have a VERY Merry Christmas!   Please text, call or email me if you have any questions. 

I will still be able to approve volunteer hours for volunteers that need volunteer service hours for their card making. I can approve the hours through your request on your Volunteer Houston sign up or your individual form. Just email me pictures of your cards once they are completed and delivered.
Donna Martin The Holiday Project  Give JOY ~ Get JOY theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com 832-515-3862 cell   Card Guidelines: 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" or other similar sayings that are creative and/or festive inside would be fine.  
•Please don't enclose or attach candy to the cards. (If you want to send candy or holiday treats to the residents they must be in sealed store packaging. The Activity Director can  give treats to the residents).
•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.)
•Cards should be signed by the persons making them.Any signature should probably include just the signer's first name or first names of group... Please Please Please do not put anything about the state of a residents health ...such as I hope you get well soon or hope your health improves...the residents aren’t all sick that live in long term care and for the short term rehab patients in skilled nursing facilities. Questions - email Donna Martin at: theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com Thank you very much for caring and spreading JOY!!   “To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world” ...Dr Seuss