About us
It started with paper and crayons
Hearts4Hands is a student-led group. We make cards for kids in hospitals, publish stories written by volunteers, and raise money for cancer research.
Our story
A kid in a hospital bed should get mail
A hospital room is a strange place to be a kid. The lights hum, the days blur, and almost everything that happens to you is decided by somebody else. Hearts4Hands started with one small idea about that: mail. Something that arrives with your name on it, drawn by a person who does not want anything from you.
It began as a student project — a stack of construction paper, a box of crayons, and a long list of ideas. There was no office and no budget. There still is not much of either. What there is, is a way to turn an afternoon at a kitchen table into something that lands in a real kid's hands.
Two things grew out of that. Volunteers kept telling us stories — about a sibling, about a diagnosis, about the year everything changed — so we built a place to publish them, with an editor reading every submission first. And because paper, envelopes, and stamps cost money, we started fundraising. Whatever is left after materials goes to cancer research.
We are new, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. What we can promise is how we work: handmade, open about where the money goes, and run by students who show up.
Milestones
How far we have come
Short version: it is early days, and that is the fun part.
The spark
One card at a time
Hearts4Hands began with a simple idea: a kid in a hospital bed should get mail that makes them laugh.
Growing
Volunteers everywhere
Students from different countries started making cards on their own kitchen tables and mailing photos of them in.
Now
Cards, stories, and research
We make cards, publish volunteer-written stories about cancer, and raise money that goes straight to materials and research.
What we believe
Four things we will not trade away
Handmade beats perfect
A crooked heart drawn by a twelve-year-old lands better than anything printed. We never ask a volunteer to make it neater.
Every kid gets the same care
We do not sort children by diagnosis, hospital, or country. If a card can reach them, they are on the list.
Show the money
Donations are split between materials and cancer research, and the split is printed on the Donate page. If the numbers change, so does the page.
Volunteers run this
There is no head office. The people making cards, editing stories, and organizing chapters are students doing it around school.
The team
Who is behind this
Some of these seats are still empty. If one of them sounds like you, say so.
- I
Ira
Founder
Started Hearts4Hands with a stack of construction paper and a very long list of ideas.
Open seat
Story editor
We are recruiting volunteer editors to review blog submissions. This could be you.
Put your hand up
Who we are for
Three kinds of people keep this going
Students, anywhere
You do not need to live near us, or near a hospital. Volunteers make cards at their own kitchen tables and log the hours from wherever they are.
Hospitals and partner organizations
If you work with kids in treatment and want cards, tell us how many and how you would like them delivered. We will work to your rules, not ours.
Donors and sponsors
Small gifts buy paper and postage. Larger ones go to cancer research. Either way you get to see the split.
Run a hospital program, a school club, or a company that wants to help?
Partner with usTwo ways in
Make a card and log the hour, or send a few dollars toward paper and research. Both count.