Delta woman’s initiative has spread to other cities in Canada and the U.S.
Last year, at one of my daughter’s softball practices, I was introduced to a woman named Erin Schulte. From North Delta, Schulte is the woman responsible for a very special project known as the “Christmas Card Collective.”
According to Brenda Anderson of the North Delta Reporter, after operating a pop-up soup kitchen for five years, Schulte decided to make her outreach work a little more personal. She was pleased that many homeless people were receiving gifts of socks, food, and practical items from charities; however, in 2017, she thought “’it [would] be lovely for them to receive cards from the community … to remind them they’re being thought of.’”
Schulte began asking people to help her fill out cards with messages of hope, love, and support. She came to my daughter’s ball practice to ask the team to write cards for the less fortunate, explaining that these messages would find their ways to pillows on the beds in homeless shelters in the days leading up to Christmas.
Schulte shared stories of how touched the people are by these cards – from the crafty pictures drawn by preschoolers to the heartfelt messages of adults. She mentioned that she had even seen some people, months later, with their Christmas card kept safely in their bag of limited belongings. It was the only meaningful gift they had received that year.
What started out as a local initiative has grown. Word of Schulte’s work spread, and last year her cards were distributed not only around the Lower Mainland, but in Red Deer, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
According to Anderson, Schulte prepared 2,000 cards in 2017 and about 5,000 last year. This year, she hopes to reach a goal of 10,000 cards to be distributed over five nights during the week before Christmas.
Schulte and volunteers read each and every card to ensure the messages are appropriate for the situation. When I told her I would have students in my school make cards, she appointed me as one of these volunteers. This Advent we are participating for the second time.
I know the cards are intended as gifts for the homeless, but reading through our school’s 500 cards, and sealing and stamping envelopes with Christmas greetings, is a gift for me as well.
The children say beautiful things such as, “I know we don’t know each other, but I’m praying for you” or “Sending you a warm hug.”
Some draw detailed pictures or include homemade snowflakes. In a season overrun with the temptation to create personal wish lists, the children are encouraged to think of what really matters in life and to reach out to someone else.
I must admit that a few cards needed to be repurposed due to the nature of their messages. In their innocence, some of the younger children wrote that Santa would be sure to bring gifts to the homeless. One little girl went as far as saying that she, herself, would give the card’s recipient a blanket, water, food, and a place to stay in her home. Since messages of this nature have the potential to cause upset, I have cut out the pictures along with a few sentiments and mounted them on new backings.
Even in these cases, the children embrace the spirit of giving and think of others in the ways they know best. They have sent their love and are praying for people in need. The cards have fostered good discussions and a sense of empathy.
The very first Christmas involved a family without a place to stay. They weren’t welcomed warmly into a shelter with a bed; they were shown to a stable with straw. There was no warm food and certainly no card on a pillow. Yet, as our Eucharistic Prayer reminds us, the Baby born in that stable “humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”
Regardless of our ages, regardless of our circumstances, Christ calls us to humble ourselves and be there for each other. As I recently told a friend facing a difficult time, “While we can’t always walk in each other’s shoes, we can definitely walk right beside each other along the path.”
In the words of Erin Schulte, “’Bring humanity back – that’s my wish for Christmas this year.”
