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Kelowna hospital fundraiser

Greeting cards touch a sympathetic nerve
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Sample of the greeting cards created and donated across the region to Kelowna General Hospital fundraising cause. - Image Credit: Contributed

Card-makers and crafters across the region helped create and donate greeting cards for a fundraiser to support Kelowna General Hospital.

Campaign organizer Lorrie Strebel said the Caring Hearts KARE (Kindness, Attention, Respect, Empathy) Card Drive started with a modest hope of collecting 100 greeting cards.

But the cause obviously hit close to home for many people, as the campaign collected more than 1,000 cards from communities across the region—Merritt, Vernon, Penticton, Osoyoos—as well across the Central Okanagan.

The cards made their debut on sale at last weekend’s Blossom Time Fair held at Strathcona Park in Kelowna, where some 250 were sold.

The plan for the remaining cards is to make them available in the hospital gift shop and at an occasional vender table run by volunteers in the KGH lobby.

“It was really exciting to see people jump on board with this idea,” said Strebel, a supervisor in the rehabilitation clinic at KGH.

“For example, we easily got about 75 cards alone from Merritt residents who wanted to support us because there is a bus that comes (to KGH) twice a week with patients from Merritt for medical care and these people wanted to give back for receiving that service.

“We’ve already started talking about a Christmas greeting card drive for the Kelowna Auxiliary fundraiser in November.”

Strebel said the greeting cards vary in level of artistic skill and materials used, priced anywhere from $1 to $5.

“Some of these cards took hour and hours to make. People donated their time and talents to give back,” she noted.



Barry Gerding

About the Author: Barry Gerding

Senior regional reporter for Black Press Media in the Okanagan. I have been a journalist in the B.C. community newspaper field for 37 years...
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