I’ve read a lot about guns and gun violence this week, a lot of words that were unfortunately necessary to both read and write. Like nearly everyone, I have a lot of thoughts concerning gun control (which I’ve lately begun referring to as “massacre control”), especially since my family lost one of our own — Alex Schachter — during the Parkland Massacre on February 14, 2018.
As much as I am tempted to, expanding on my thoughts here would completely eclipse the main topic at hand, possibly permanently, so instead, thanks to the generosity of Cardthartic, today I am inviting you to expand on your thoughts, and, hopefully, make a difference.
The “please listen” postcard you see a bit below began to come to life in April 2018, when Cardthartic sent an eblast to its Cardies (as it calls its fans) that included a link to a story called “How Mental Health Professionals Speak with their Own Children About School Shootings.”
They heard back from Cardie Gloria Dougherty, who wrote, “I am a long-time fan, and I buy Cardthartic wherever I can. But your message today has left me feeling hollow. While I applaud helping parents (and) grandparents to offer comfort and solace, I wish you had also encouraged each to speak up, to call on Congress and local legislators to stop this madness. And, once the parents (and) grandparents have spoken up, they could share with the children, ‘This is what I did to try to stop this.’ We all need to speak out.” Gloria finished, “FYI, Sirhan Sirhan was a neighbor, walking by my front door on his way to kill Robert Kennedy. That was in 1968; I’ve been at this a long time.”
Gloria had already begun a postcard project to contact legislators, essentially buying postcards, stamping them, and handing them out to other sympathetic souls to fill out and send. Moved by Gloria’s plea, passion and persistence, Cardthartic Founder Jodee Stevens created the Please Listen postcard, offering the postcards free to any and all its followers..
To date, Cardthartic’s followers have sent 35,000 Please Listen postcards to legislators across the land. That number included about 4,000 immediately sent to student government groups at Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, and within Columbine, Aurora, and Sandy Hook, too. Unsurprisingly, Gloria’s birthday gift from her husband that year was 1,000 postcard stamps.
Then, in August 2020, the Act Now postcard came to life as a means to encourage Congress to pass coronavirus aid legislation. Again, these were inspired by one person’s story — in this case, 17-year-old Justin Cross, who lost both his Mom and Dad to COVID-19 in the same week.
Access your free postcards here. The cart can only process 100 per order, but you can place more than one order! And, if you do take advantage of this incredibly generous offer. take a look around & shop Cardthartic’s charming wares. Please consider signing up for its newsletter to join the ranks of Cardies across the globe. Between her magnificent range and efforts like these, it should be pretty clear why I designated Jodee as one of Stationery Trends’ 10 Designers to Watch in 2021. I’d keep my eye on her if I were you!
Finally, just as I was finishing this post up, I got an email from Shoppe Object detailing the @designforatl fundraiser for the families affected by the tragedy in Atlanta on 3/16. A really impressive slew of makers have donated really exquisite product; visitors can enter a drawing for those they are interested in by making a donation. Winners are announced March 30!
