Last year, Chicago Friends of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, a small group of Chicago residents with personal connections to ovarian cancer, decided to create holiday cards to benefit OCRF. Brian Munck, whose mother was very ill, offered to donate the materials, packaging, and printing services to produce the holiday cards through his company, Graphic Suisse, Inc.



Jill Gray, another OCRF supporter, asked Chicago-based graphic designer Marian Williams to be a part of the project. Marian generously donated her time to create four festive card designs.



Income from the cards will help fund ovarian cancer research. Although Brian's mother died as the cards were being delivered, he hopes that funds from the cards will help make a difference in other women's lives.


Because of Brian Munck's and Marian Williams' donated goods and services, the entire price of the cards goes directly to OCRF's research programs.


Anne

Wildflower Seed Card from New York Public Library

Here's a great card from the New York Public Library shop. Wildflower seeds are embedded in the (recycled) paper. After the holidays, your friends or clients can plant the card and soon - if all goes according to plan - Baby Blue-Eyes, Chinese Houses, and other wildflowers will appear.

The cards are $3.75 each, but how many cards come with Catchfly seeds? And they help the New York Public Library.

The card also comes in shooting snowflake and red bird designs.

Anne

New Jonathan Adler Card for God's Love We Deliver

Designer Jonathan Adler has created a vivid, happy card for God's Love We Deliver.

GLWD prepares and delivers nutritious, high-quality meals to men, women, and children in the New York City area who -- because they are living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and other life-altering illnesses -- are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves.

The cards cost $17 a set, $12.75 of which goes directly to provide meals to those who need them.

Anne

Humble Hearts School for the Deaf, Nairobi

Humble Hearts School for the Deaf in Nairobi, Kenya, educates students who are orphans or from poor families that cannot afford the costs of special education. The children learned how to make block prints in early 2007, and since then they have created sweet, simple holiday cards each year.

A new residential cottage at the school will open soon, but students still lack beds, tables, and additional furnishings for the building. Card purchases will help furnish the new space.

A set of ten cards costs $13, of which $9.75 goes directly to Humble Hearts.

Anne