Receiving holiday cards, birthday cards and congratulations cards in the mail always puts a smile on my face. After I read them, I like to put the cards on display in some creative way, like hanging them up on an old window shutter for a unique piece of wall art. One Indiana woman is doing something a bit different with the greeting cards that she gets in the mail.
From greeting cards to gifts
Joyce Hall decided that her old greeting cards could be put to very good use by transforming them into pretty boxes and filling them with candy. She would deliver the boxes to area nursing homes when the holidays rolled around. Her thoughtful gesture never goes unnoticed.
“I don’t get to see the people who get them, but the staff in the nursing homes are so nice,” Hall explained to The Republic. “They are very grateful and thankful they’re getting something individual.”
The boxes were often more valued than the candy because of their intricate beauty and craftsmanship. But in order to continue to transform these cards into special gifts, she was going to need quite a few more of them. Hall placed an ad in her local newspaper asking people to donate cards that they no longer wanted. She received an overwhelming response, with people sending her approximately 5,000 cards to be used for her box projects. What’s interesting is that a few of the cards she was given dated as far back as the 1920s.
Sending joy to Africa
Nursing homes aren’t the only locations that were lucky enough to be blessed with Hall’s crafty candy boxes. A friend of Hall’s, Tracey Clayton, was headed on a mission trip to South Sudan. Along with her suitcase, she brought with her many of Hall’s repurposed greeting card boxes and passed them out to the local children. Hall also gave Clayton old cards that she had folded into trinkets for the children in Africa.
“You do it just so they know someone is remembering them and taking the time to make one little thing that goes in their hands,” said Hall. “I just wish I could send them all over there because I know they’ve never seen anything like them.”
It’s amazing to think how a simple stack of greeting cards can be transformed into something so wonderful. Cards truly are gifts that keep on giving.