THE EARTH: HELP EVER HURT NEVER - RECYCLING GREETING CARDS (1995)

A letter on some scrap scribbled over in illegible style carrying some absurd bit of information will be carried by mail and will be delivered at the address with care and exactitude, provided it has the exact stamp fixed on it. A letter on costly notepaper carrying exquisite calligraphy and florid with a weighty message, worth its weight in gold, will lie neglected and condemned if it doesn't have the stamp that the postal regulation requires! The stamp of devotion (bhakthi) is what makes the prayer reach the destination, God --not the festoons, the fanfare, the heap of flowers, or the festive nature of the feast- offerings. The simple sincere heart is the stamp that makes the prayer travel fast.

Sathya Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Speaks VII, Chapter 49, 276

These days, people get many cards from friends, with most of them coming during the Christmas and New Year season. Don't throw those greeting cards away --they can be reused! Reusing the cards as described below will not only help the Earth; it will help children in need.

Collect as many cards as you can and send them to

St. Jude's Ranch will cut the pictures off the cards, paste them onto new paper, and fold them in half to create new "recycled cards". (If you wish to save postage by sending them only the pictures from your old cards, that is okay.) Scraps from the old cards, as well as all unusable cards, are made into wallboard, so nothing is wasted.

St. Jude's accepts all kinds of cards, but Christmas cards are especially popular. Last year, they received about 1,000,000 cards and successfully recycled 500,000 of them. The new cards are sold in their on-site gift shop and through mail order. They are available in religious, non-religious, and occasion packets.

About St. Jude's

St. Jude's Ranch for Children, a non-profit, non-sectarian children's home, was founded in 1967. It is a residential facility for about 40 boys and girls, aged four to eighteen, who have been abandoned, have been abused or are in troubled family situations. St. Jude's provides a temporary home (the average stay is about two years), with the love the children so desperately need. The goal is to reunite each child with their family if possible. St. Jude's philosophy emphasizes preparing the children to become independent and self-sufficient by promoting the development of a work ethic and skills training. Children are expected to take part in religious activities, but they may practice the religion in which they were raised.

The children work on the greeting-card project, and the money they earn is entirely theirs to spend or save as they wish; they are encouraged to donate part of the money to worthy charities in the spirit of giving.

A possible children's project

If you going to collect old greeting cards in your Center, why not have your Bal Vikas children take part in sending them to St. Judes Ranch for Children? Here's another idea. Get some heavy paper and have the children make new greeting cards or Christmas cards, using the pictures on the old cards, to give to the elderly the next time your Center visits a home for the elderly or nursing home.

Where did greeting cards originate, and who uses them the most?

In the 15th century, master wood engravers produced inscribed prints that had the same intent as modern Christmas and New Year cards. During the 18th and 19th centuries, copperplate engravers were producing prints and calendars and greetings for organizations and merchants. The first Christmas Card was designed in England in 1843 by J.C. Horsely; 1,000 copies were placed on sale. Greeting cards in commercial quantities started in 1860.

The exchange of greeting cards in the U.S. is far beyond that practised in other countries. In the late 1950's, about 300 greeting-card publishers were producing 5,000,000,000 cards --that's a lot of paper!-- with a wholesale value of $275,000,000. About half were Christmas cards.

An Interview in July 1995

Lady: Swami, how can I help with the Water Project?
Swami: Do you have a water faucet in your house?
Lady: Yes, Swami.
Swami: Don't waste water. Turn your faucet off. And turn off your electricity too. That is your Water Project and your Electricity Project.

Sai Quote

When you meet each other, do not shout Hello! Or Bye-bye, or some silly chatter. Let the meeting be sanctified by the remembrance of God; say Ram Ram or Om or Hari Om or Sai Ram. What you call etiquette is only a `ticket' to barbarism; you pronounce good-bye as if it was the Telugu word `guddi-abbai', meaning a blind boy! How can mere chatter lead you to the bliss you seek? How can the mirage quench oneÕs thirst? Its waters neither arise from the mountain nor do fall into the sea! Sathya Sai Speaks VII, Chapter 49, 278

This project was conceived by a member of the Marin Center, CA.