A Request from USArtQuest for victim's of Katrina

Dear Stamping Friends,

USArtQuest has found a small, yet significant way to help those who will for some time, be living in makeshift housing of our devastated south. We know that once the evacuees have reached a point where essential life-needs are met,they will also need something to keep their spirits up.

The employees of USArtQuest will begin assembling Card Art Kits on October 1. These kits are to benefit those suffering from their overwhelming sense of loss, by providing a bit of art therapy. Hands can stay creatively busy, while helping hearts heal. Although the process of evacuating and relocating may take several weeks or months, our project will also take that long to assemble.

This is how you can participate: Please gather your friends, your cardstock and pretty Christmas stamps, new, old, juvenile, pretty, elegant, cute and in-between – all just begging to be used. Stamp and emboss at least 6 Christmas/Holiday cards WITH ENVELOPES and send them to USArtQuest. DO NOT color them or do anything to embellish them in any way, other than to stamp and emboss. Pre-layering images is acceptable. We want nicely stamped, but plain cards. PLEASE PUT POSTAGE ON THE ENVELOPES and 6 cards into one zip-lock bag. If you use dark cardstock, please enclose a piece of white paper, so that personal notes can be written with regular ballpoint pens.

USArtQuest will supply the brushes, watercolors, stickers, additional paper/card, markers and the oodles of donated creative materials, as well as do the assembly, packing and shipping of the kits to the affected areas. Those who receive the kits will have, for at least a few hours, the opportunity to sit, paint, embellish and finish the cards for their friends and family for the holidays.

We all know that something as small as sending or receiving a card can be very important. But, more importantly, these handmade cards may be the only gift they can give this year. Our goal is to send 200 kits, each kit having enough materials for 12 people. (That means a staggering, 72 stamped cards per kit.) If we receive more cards, then we will assemble as many kits as the cards support. We would like to ship the first pallet of kits, by mid- October. If my arrangements to personally distribute the kits does not happen, (my sister lives in Houston), then we have asked that Points of Light Foundation and the Salvation Army to begin distributing the kits in late October.

If you would like to include ribbons, stickers or other creative materials not commonly carried by USArtQuest, we will also include them in the kit boxes. If you are able to participate, please begin sending your cards, with postage attached and/or materials to:

USArtQuest, Inc.
7800 Ann Arbor Road
Grass Lake, MI 49240 ATTN: We Care With heartfelt thanks and prayers for our neighbors, Susan
president Susan Pickering Rothamel
USArtQuest, Inc.