How to Recycle Your Holiday Cards

If you know me, then you know I look for ways to recycle everything. These are my two favorite ways to reuse all those wonderful Christmas cards: 

Keep them. Cut the top part of the card off and re-use next year as a gift tag. Put bottom (written on part) in your recycle bin.

Here's one I did this year using a card from last year.

Or,  Send your cards to St. Jude's Ranch. Here's the link for more info:

http://www.stjudesranch.org/shop/recycled-card-program/

The St. Jude's Recycled Card Program is operated by Kids’ Corp., a program for the children at St. Jude’s Ranch to learn entrepreneurship skills, the children participate in making the new cards by removing the front and attaching a new back. The result is a beautiful new card made by the children and volunteers. The benefits are two-fold: customers receive “green” holiday cards for use and the children receive payment for their work and learn the benefits and importance of “going green.”

Please post how you reuse your cards, I love hearing other people's ideas!

Merry Christmas!

A Shoe Drive

Last week I organized a shoe drive at my son's school.  I partnered with Soles4Souls, an organization that collects gently worn shoes and distributes them all over the world to people living in extreme poverty and/or recovering from natural disasters.

Soles4Souls struck a cord with me because not only do they help people in need, they encourage recycling! Did you know a pair of leather shoes takes 25 to 40 years to decompose?

With the help and support of the principal, Mr. Koltovich and donations from the students and community, I collected 769 pairs of shoes! That means 769 people will be receiving shoes, some of them for the first time! How awesome is that?!

I was little worried how I was going to get all those shoes from my living room to a warehouse an hour away until my neighbor, Fred, knocked on my door and said, “Merry Christmas, I will rent you a Uhaul!” Fred paid for the cost of the cargo van and gas out of the kindness of his heart. Thank you Fred...our house was beginning to smell like stinky feet!

The shoe drive was very simple to do. If you have kids in school or belong to an organization please consider doing one. Go to: soles4souls.org

When going through the daily motions of life and its obstacles, remember, there are kind, generous souls everywhere....

Merry Christmas and thanks to all who donated!