VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - I quietly made my way down a hallway at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Virginia Beach to surprise Susan Saunders with a News 3 Everyday Hero award.
As I approached a room filled with women busily working on greeting cards, I hollered out, "Susan Saunders!" Amid cheers, she responded, "Oh, I know you!" with a laugh.
When I asked her if she knew why I was there, she said, "I might have an idea now!"
I told her we've been hearing wonderful things about her program. Susan responded, "It's a good program."
She started a program in which participants meet twice a month at the church and carefully craft handmade greeting cards for nursing home residents in Virginia Beach.
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Georgia Brown, one of the card makers, said there's something special and meaningful about receiving a homemade card.
"There's something to be said for personal communication in an age of email and texts and just the idea of people in nursing homes who don't get visitors that don't get mail," said Georgia.
Christine McGrath, who nominated Susan for the Everyday Hero award, agrees with Georgia about why these cards are special.
"There are so many people in need and one day, it may be us in a nursing home and we may be happy to get a card," said Christine.
The cards they're currently working on are for the upcoming Halloween. They try to cover all the major holidays.
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Last year, they delivered more than 3,000 cards and they take great care in making them unique. All the women sign each card and it includes this prayer: "As we created this greeting card, we prayed that it would bring peace and joy to your heart, knowing that we care."
Susan explained why it was important for her to start this group: "Because the people in the nursing homes don't have anyone. I'm a retired nurse, and I just feel like I'd like to go and visit all of them, but you can't. So I thought, well, what could we do? And a card is like a gift."
So for all that she's doing, we presented Susan with an Everyday Hero award, along with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank.
Susan hopes this story gets the word out about her program. She wants to reach more nursing homes and she needs more volunteers. She is eager to help other organizations get started with card-making.
She helps oversee a fund that can provide grants for other groups to launch their own card-making campaign to reach more nursing homes. For more information, you can email her at susanssaundersrn@gmail.com.
