New smiles from old cards

EDGEWATER – In the hands of Bobbi Bradley and members of Edgewater’s Kardz R Us Club, used greeting cards come to life again.

As they salvage the best parts of old cards and rejuvenate them with new paper backings, their old sentiments become fresh again and find their way to another recipient.

They even go toward helping people in need. Every dollar earned by each $1 card the club sells goes to support the Community Crisis Center in Elgin, assisting families living through domestic abuse and turmoil.

The idea to recycle cards this way was started not by the club but by Nancy Sisler, an Elgin resident. Sisler began making the cards and donating the proceeds to Community Crisis Center in Elgin, to benefit women in need.

Sisler, who had raised about $80,000 for the center, inspired Bobbi Bradley to bring the program to Edgewater. Bradley continued Sisler’s mission by donating to the same source.

In four-and-a-half years, Kardz R Us raised over $11,600 by selling their cards in Creekside Lodge. The club was honored by the Center with an invite to their annual dinner and a “Heart of the Center” award last year.

“Throughout the years we adjusted it because she did it all herself,” Bobbi said during a tour of the “factory floor.”

Here, the members of Kardz R Us worked together during their August 23 meeting, each with their own role. There are the cutters, the folders, the gluers, and the color-matchers. Each card made by the club passes through these specialists at least once.

“It’s an assembly line,” Bradley said.

“Actually, it’s a sweatshop,” one member joked.

A lighthearted spirit is key to Kardz R Us. As members shear, paste, and crease, they also pass around stories and laughs.

“I do enjoy it; it’s busy work, and I like it because it does some good for the community; it’s going to a good cause,” Gayle Anderson, a folder who estimated she does about 500 sheets on an average night, said.

While no training or experience is necessary to help make cards, some members have a background that has prepared them for this line of work.

“I was a preschool teacher for many years, so I like doing this kind of crafty stuff,” Sue Mc- Creight, a color matcher, said.

Sue enjoys taking materials home to get even more cards ready. Her job entails matching a background of construction paper to the card and looking for the perfect shade to make accents on the card pop.

The assembly line comes to a halt after the gluers, who spread rubber cement on the cards and bond cardstock and construction paper before the finished product is dried and placed in an envelope.

Though fumes from the adhesive permeated the air around the gluers’ table, they did not seem to mind.

“They kind of say that this is the fun table here,” Bradley said.

Part of the fun to be had at Kardz R Us comes not from glue, but from reading the cards that get sent through. Members see hundreds of cards a week and certain ones stick out in their minds.

“Some of them are cool, some of them are funny; we read them and we get laughing at the cards,” gluer Patsy Beemer said.

Kardz R Us has cards for all seasons, reaching its peak during the holidays. And though the club has an assortment of cards, Bradley said the group can always use cards that go towards a younger recipient, like birthday, graduation, and wedding cards.

“We have a ton of mother and grandmother and grandfather stuff here, so for daughter, son, granddaughter, we don’t get as much,” she said. Bradley encouraged anyone to donate cards, as well as volunteer if they are interested.

“I appreciate all my volunteers,” Bradley said. “I couldn’t do it without my volunteers.”

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