Cards For Hospitalized Kids

Location: AEP Energy

Date: Thursday, December 05 and Friday, December 06 2013

I was fortunate at the beginning of my career to work in a Company where for most parts people liked each other.  It was a small start-up and all of us were working towards what is commonly known as the ‘noble cause’.  One of the proudest moments of my life was when our team broke the ‘world record’ for something…a project I had no involvement with.  But it felt special.  These were my friends.  It was our success.   And for as long as I shall live, I will never forget that moment.  Then I came to work for ‘AEP Energy’, a new environment, and a new team; and as much as I would want to recreate the situation from my earlier place, it is just not possible.  Sure, for a time there had been friends, but circumstances had led me seeking something more personal.  This had led to the discovery of ‘Chicago Cares’, ‘Make-A-Wish’ and ‘One Brick.’  That association has given me experiences that I had never imagined possible, and encouraged me to be more empathetic, patient and understanding. So when a call was issued for employees to volunteer to be on a ‘Culture Crew’, I was the first to sign-up.

The ‘Culture Crew’ was created to take the pulse of the staff, be their voice in front of the management, and implement programs to improve the culture of ‘AEP Energy’.  After a few meetings, the crew decided to form 3 sub-committees: ‘Service Projects’, ‘Social Development’ and ‘Internal Communications’.  With my background, I immediately joined the ‘Service Projects’ sub-committee and as a first task, we developed 3 proposals; one of which was to implement something for the upcoming holidays.  I suggested that we get everyone to do an Arts & Crafts project and make holiday cards.  Everyone on the crew loved the idea, and so did our sponsor on the Executive Management, as well as rest of the company.  So now that we knew that we were going to make these cards, the next question was who’s going to be receiving them.  We wanted to do cards for kids, and so decided to send them to a children’s hospital's like ‘Lurie’ or ‘Rush’.  We reached out to them and ‘Lurie’ said that while we could send them, they would put the cards in a bucket by the reception and people were welcome to pick them up.  This did not sound very appealing and it was then that we found ‘Cards For Hospitalized Kids’.

According to their website, “Cards for Hospitalized Kids (CFHK) is an internationally recognized charitable organization that spreads hope, joy & magic to hospitalized kids across America through uplifting, handmade cards.  Anyone can get involved with us, from anywhere. Individuals and groups across the United States, and world, donate time and creativity to make handmade cards and send them to us for distribution in hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses across the nation.  Over 40,000 kids in hospitals in all 50 states have received cards from us. We believe this is just the beginning.  We hope you will get involved and help us brighten the days of as many hospitalized kids as possible.”  Well, it seemed like a perfect fit for us and so we wrote to them expressing our interest.  They said that we were more than welcome to send cards, though we were told not to mention “Christmas” or “Santa” on the cards; I guess to respect religious sensitivities.  Now, I personally have a huge pet peeve with people who try to be overly “politically correct”.   I was not born a Christian, but my family always celebrated Christmas and ‘Santa Claus’ was very much a part of my childhood.  I mean come on.  It’s Santa.  Every kid knows him and it’s a shame that some people deny kids that joyous experience because they do not want to “offend” some communities.  Well, if this was their condition, we were fine with it.  At least the kids would get our cards. 

The supplies

We had been allocated a budget of $50 for supplies and I knew that we would blow through that in no time.  I offered to go pick up the supplies in ‘Michaels’, knowing that I would be spending out-of-pocket.  I have done Card projects at 'Lakeview Nursing' and other Arts & Crafts projects at 'Pat Crowley' before, and know all the wonderful possibilities with the right supplies.  So I went on a shopping spree and got card stock paper in different colors, multiple types of stickers, stamps, punches, different colored pens…everything one would need to make cards.  As I had suspected, I had gone way over budget and so at checkout asked for different receipts so that I could expense up to $50, but I suspected that I wouldn’t be doing even that.  Armed with all the supplies, I showed them to my colleagues and they were pleased and excited to get underway.  Besides these, we also had also gotten some donated supplies and it seemed more than enough.  Boy, were we to be proven wrong.

People thought about doing a competition between different departments, to see which department can make the most cards.  I am not a big fan of competitions, especially for something like this; and am an even lesser fan of departmental segregation.  In fact, when the ‘Culture Crew’ had been formed, people had introduced themselves stating which department they belonged to and I had said that I belong to ‘AEP Energy’.  I was once told that when we walk through the doors of our work place, we have but one loyalty and that is not to our individual departments, but to the business.  So when people said that we would keep buckets, one for each department to drop their cards inside, I decided to keep mine separately.  The cause was the main reason why we should be doing this. 

My 3 cards

We had decided to do this over two days and at two locations – Chicago and at our Columbus office.  Our team member in Columbus had procured supplies and they were going to do same schedule as us.  We had invited people to come in around noon, but many people had arranged their daily schedules to filter in throughout the day... and they came in droves.  When I went in, people were occupying all available spaces in the big conference room where we had laid out the supplies and churning out cards by the dozens.  Their creativity knew no bounds and most of the cards were just outstanding.  Furthermore, people were enjoying themselves and each other’s company.  Looks like we were succeeding in our mission on all fronts. I went about my day and when I returned in the evening, I learned that the production had increased even more in the afternoon and we had run out of supplies!  One of our team members had to go and get some more and I said that I would pick up some as well.  We had made 221 cards on Day 1, with 3 of them being my contributions.

I went to ‘Walgreens’ and ‘Dominicks’ that evening and another card store the next morning to get even more supplies.  And it was a good thing since many more people showed up on Day 2 and it while they weren't as many cards as Day 1, it still turned out to be a productive session and at the end of it all, we had managed to make 307 cards.  They were in all sizes and shapes and we arranged all of them on a table and took a picture.  We packaged them in a box and the next day I took it to a post office and shipped it to ‘Cards For Hospitalized Kids’.  Based on what we had accomplished, there were going to be lots of happy kids.  Holidays are a special time and hopefully these cards would bring them cheer; and based on some of the designs, they were sure to do so.  Plus, I was proud of my colleagues…all of them.  They had gone above and beyond to deliver these cards and had bonded as well.  A few months ago our company had done a ‘You Rock Week’ and other than the one issue that I had, it had been a terrific way for colleagues to appreciate each other.  These last couple of days had built upon that.  Yes we had announced a competition, but to me all of them had been winners.  I placed an order for 6-dozen donuts, because everyone who had made a card deserved to be recognized. I had thought that the cause should be the main reason to do this and while that was true, it has also been a great team building exercise.  To me this had been 2 of the best days of my career with the Company. 

All of the 307 cards