RichMarathi’s Gudi Padwa celebration in Hindu Center, Richmond, VA

This was the second event for Heart2Heart and we received a good response from the attendees. Almost everyone stopped to look at the cards and many bought them. The realization that 100% of their donations will go towards Haiti’s relief and rehabilitation, motivates several people to make a contribution. Shyamal and Priti coordinated the display and fundraising. Our cards display banner looked good. Makes me feel good about the positive difference we are making in someones lives.

GRTA-Ugadi Celebration, Richmond, VA.

People responded with much enthusiasm to the card designs and showed liking to the handmade look. The organizers made intermittent announcements throughout the program and that helped. We need to have some kind of a banner with the cards display on it.

The cards are here!!

We received our first batch of 200 cards today, Hurray! Kiran picked them up from the printer. We are oh so excited. We met at night at Kiran's place to fold them. Folded cards were to cost just a little extra and we decided to offset it by doing it ourselves. We folded individual cards and neatly stacked them, packing similar design in individual boxes and ran a brief inventory on the numbers. They are looking very pretty with the smooth fine paper and the beautiful curves of the bright art work on them. Our logo of Heart2Heart on the back page with the mission statement reads well. So far so good.

Our first event is up-coming day after tomorrow, the GRTA-Ugadi Celebrations. Greater Richmond’s Telugu Association has generously permitted us to set up a display and sales table for our cards. Kiran is coordinating this event and it was decided that myself and Shyamal will be helping her.

We have some designs now.

Each of us has created a set of card designs and are really excited to get them printed as soon as possible. We love our designs and are also anxious at the same time. Anxious if we will be able to reach our goal of raising funds and supporting the cause that has propelled this endeavor. We will be donating all the funds raised for the relief and rehabilitation of the Earthquake victims in Haiti. We are using the vehicle organisation Doctor's without Borders to make our contributions.

We have carefully choosen the themes of our cards. They are all very special to us, in that they convey the message of love, healing, joy and peace. We want to help and serve and want our designs to reflect these feelings. Most of us make cards for friends and family on the ocassions of birthdays or anniversarries to celebrate their lives and it is such a joy to give it to our loved ones. But making cards that will impact the lives that have been severely disrupted was a very different experience. We had to be sensitive to the design depictions, we had to depict beauty and joy in as simple a manner as possible. Oh how exciting it was to see our art work spread across the table, ready to go. Now printing them is the next big step.

We are printing locally

Visited the printer today-Printer's Mark in Richmond, VA. This is going to be wonderful. Mark was very cooperative and suggested different paper options. We have decided to print the colored cards on white paper and black and white cards on beige colored paper. So far we have 24 good designs showcasing different styles. We will post the link that will showcase our card designs.

Choosing the paper was important because we wanted to cards to look handmade and yet presentable. Not too heavy like the ones you get in stores and not too flimsy either. The surface of the paper needed to be slightly glossy and of the kind that you can write on with ink or ball point pen. We had collected several samples of various cards that we had liked for their paper quality and printing style. I had never paid so much attention to the style of a card until now and doing it was really fun.