Brief Description:

We hosted a service event to make cards for people in need, through the organization Cardz for Kidz. Participants at this event wrote kind messages and decorated cards to be sent to people in need, including kids, the elderly, and military service members. We hosted our event on the Lincoln Park Campus at the Student Center to attract DePaul students to attend our event. We also accepted donations that went directly to the charity organization. 

Charity:

The charity organization we supported through our event was Cardz for Kidz. This organization was created by Ike Nwankwo, who has had a passion for helping sick and recovering pediatric patients. Nwankwo has personally experienced an illness where he had to stay in the hospital and realized how restricting it was to be stuck in his hospital room while sick.  He gathered people in his community to make handmade cards for patients at the hospital he volunteered at, then realized he wanted to expand the mission. Increased interest from those donating cards made the organization expand its delivery service to hospitalized and/or traumatized children. They now deliver cards to children around the world.  They are based near the West Loop in Chicago. Their website has guidelines for making cards along with instructions for planning a group event, packing cards, and mailing them.  They specify the types of cards they are especially in need of, which include non-seasonal children’s cards, military cards, Spanish cards, and cards for the elderly. 

Project Objectives & Results: 

Participants

Best Case: 175

Worst Case: 5 (our team members)

Most Likely: 70

Actual Results: 15

 

Cards Made

Best Case: 500

Worst Case: 5

Most Likely: 250-300

Actual Results: 100

 

Funds Raised

Best Case: $100

Worst Case: $0

Most Likely: $50-75

Actual Results: $255

 

Social Media Impressions 

Best Case: 1,000

Worst Case: 0

Most Likely: 675

Actual Results: ~1,200

Lessons Learned: 

From managing this project, we learned the importance of communicating with the organization you are supporting early on in the project, ordering supplies as soon as you know what you will need for the event, and establishing clear communication channels with all team members. These three lessons were critical to the success of our event and project. 

Advice for Future Groups: 

The advice we would give to future groups doing similar projects is to always allow more time to complete project activities than you think you will need. There were multiple instances where our activities took longer than anticipated, including getting flyers approved by the Office of Student Involvement and delivering/shipping our finished cards to the organization. Since we hosted our event earlier than needed, we had enough slack time for these activities that took longer than expected. 

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