Are you interested in making/donating cards for the troops to send back home to their loved ones? Over the Labor Day weekend, the wish-RAK group is holding a series of "challenges" to help our membership make the types of cards that are most requested by the troops. An hourly challenge is posted including theme and type of card. However, you have all weekend (and then some extra time) to make all the cards you care to donate. Cards being donated are sent to volunteers who sort, package and ship them off to contacts in the various armed services. Sometimes the troops even write back to us. Here's a sample of one of the replies we received back from the troops:
Quote:
| I would like to say thank you from all of us for the beautiful cards that were sent to us. It means so much to have to use when writing to our family and friends. Everyone did such a wonderful job and we loved that there were a large variety of occasions to choose from. The very few cards that they do sell here does not even compare to the craftsmanship, time, and thought behind the work that you all did and we are all very grateful. |
To see all the information about the challenges, you have to be a member of the RAK group (wish-RAK is actually a sub-group under the RAK group).
Join the RAK group now so that we have time to get your membership processed plus give you a chance to get comfortable with the group/forum before the challenges start. (Click on the purple link above, click on the radio button in the far right column in the row for the RAK group and click on the "Join Group" button.)
Because I know I had lots of questions I wanted to ask before I joined RAK, I'm including some information about the RAK group in general, as well as wish-RAK. Please feel free to PM me with any questions about the group.
RAK
The Random Acts of Kindness group is a place where you can send cards, etc to help cheer people up or just surprise them with "happy mail". It's completely up to you how much or how little you decide to do. Any RAK member can post threads asking for RAKs for sick kids/friends, someone whose family member has died or someone just in need of some happy mail.
There are also several sub-forums, all of which are completely voluntary:
- Weekly RAK Challenges,
- Welcoming Committee,
- Birthday Committee and
- Wish-RAK
The Weekly RAK Challenge is a fun way to generate ideas for sending out truly random raks. Each week a new challenge is posted. You can do the current challenge or any older challenge. For example, the very first challenge was to take at least two letters from your FIRST name and send out a RAK to someone whose LAST name begins with that same letter (using the RAK membership list you will have access to once your membership is completed). If you want to do that you can but it's completely up to you. You can do as many or as few as you want, whenever you want.
The Welcoming Committee sends out RAKS to our new members. Once the RAK coordinators set up new memberships, we post the list of newbies in that forum and the members of the committee make sure our newbies all get at least one RAK. There is a thank-you thread in that sub-forum for posting your thanks when you get your first RAK.
The Birthday Committee is similar to the welcoming committee only they send out Birthday RAKs to our members.
Then there's wish-RAK. This is also completely voluntary but does require an additional membership request (once your general RAK membership is created) explained in the "Welcome to wish-RAK" thread. Wish-RAK is an awesome sub-group. It gets a little complicated but the general idea is that you send stamped images (or embellishments, paper, ink , etc) to other wish-RAKmembers. It was originally formed to send stamped images from SU! set(s) on quarter sheets (4 1/4 inch x 5 1/2 inch) to share with other members within this group. Since its conception brads, eyelets, prima flowers, die cuts, ribbon, designer paper, cardstock, punch wishes and other stamp manufacturers have been allowed as a WISH.
You get to make 3 wishes for "free" to start with (things you would like to receive). Then for every wish that you fulfill, you earn another wish for yourself. There are a bunch of rules about what is acceptable quality paper, ink etc. If you join wish-RAK there are several posts and an excel file that contains all the rules. You will also get a "mentor" to you to help you get up to speed because there are a lot more "rules" (all aimed at making sure 'quality' paper and inks are used so that everyone gets good images).
Wish-RAK also has weekly "challenges" and special exchanges (about once every 2 months) and "cards for the troops" challenges (which are usually around holiday weekends). Some people get a little overwhelmed at first so if you are feeling that way, I suggest joining RAK, getting used to it first and then joining wish-RAK.
RAK memberships are processed twice a month (mid month and end of month). There are two of us who take turns processing the new requests. We send out a PM requesting the rest of the info we need to complete the membership and give everyone 1 week to respond. Then it takes us several hours to update all the files, post them to the RAK forum and officially "turn on" the memberships. That means that depending on when you submit your request, it could be up to almost 4 weeks before your membership is approved (if you request membership just after the PMs are sent). But it's well worth the wait!
Labor Day Cards for the Troops wish-RAK challenge
