NICE Assignment: Make a Child Smile

Hi everyone! Sorry about the missing Friday post. My sickness reared its ugly head and pounded me with a terrible migraine. Unfortunately doing anything except sleeping was too painful. I was able to recuperate for the most part this weekend, so let's hope the worst of it is over!

But let's get back on track. It's Monday, which means it's assignment day! And I found a great one for you guys. The organization Make a Child Smile was founded in May 1998 by Alexandra Bakker as a program to send mail and care packages to sick children. As she explains, "Doesn't take much time, doesn't cost much money and WHO DOESN'T LOVE TO GET MAIL (other than bills!!)??? Even we adults do, imagine a little kid?? And I am talking about REAL mail... A card that someone took the time to buy or create." So true.

Today's Assignment: Make a Child Smile

All you have to do is visit this page to see the list of children currently registered with Make a Child Smile. Click on the little "Page" icon to the left of their name where you can read a little bit about that child and find their address. Then, send them a little something to brighten their day!

Here are some simple DO's and DON'Ts from the website to help you out:

DON'Ts
Please try not to say: "Get well soon", "Get better" or anything similar, as some kids have illnesses with no known cure and sadly will not get better.

Avoid adding Bible verses or any mention of religion as our kids have different beliefs.

Do not mail candy to the kids or anything edible, as some kids have various types of allergies.

Do not add confetti and glitter inside envelopes/packages. Though that's very cute, it's a HUGE mess to clean up once a child rip-opens an envelope/package and everything goes all over the place, especially if they are on a hospital bed.

DO's
You can say: "Wishing you well", "Praying for you", "Thinking of you"...

Send cheery mail... you're supposed to "make a child smile", remember?? You can write something funny on your card, maybe a joke or something funny that happened to you.

Write about you and your family, send pictures of your family, pets, vacations, describing where you've been and what you did... tell stories! Kids LOVE stories!!

A card can be a LOT more than just the text that's already printed on there... and your signature. BE CREATIVE!!

And for additional information, check out the FAQs section. Thanks for participating!