If you know of any local families or organizations that are especially in need at this time, please give me a call or reply to this email. I will do my best to spread the word!

With World Postcard Day coming up on October 1, let’s reintroduce the art of sending and receiving postcards! If for you it’s a forgotten art, use these links as a guide to rekindle your love of the simple one-card note.

If you’re not totally convinced why you should jump back on the postcard-sending wagon, here are eight reasons to start finding the right picture to say a thousand words. https://tinyurl.com/uplift09231

It’s not always about sending it to someone else, either. This article suggests that sending yourself a postcard is the perfect keepsake for a trip well traveled. https://tinyurl.com/uplift09232

Okay, you’re going away, and you’ve decided to give postcard writing a shot. Where do you start? This piece is a handy little guide for when you’re stuck on what to write. https://tinyurl.com/uplift09233

Perhaps you have a collection of old postcards but are unsure if they’re worth anything. According to this article, they could be quite valuable https://tinyurl.com/uplift09234

Picture postcard pioneers. With World Postcard Day just around the corner, check out this fascinating history of the postcard. With a history spanning all the way back to the 1700s, sending picture postcards from your travels has been a popular pastime for hundreds of years, with the first known example of the “classic” postcard we know today invented by Demaison, a Parisian engraver. It took a good while to catch on, though. Read on to discover why! More: https://tinyurl.com/uplift0923b

Teaching global goals. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs for short, are a set of targets set to guide societies and governments in what needs to happen to achieve a sustainable future for both people and the environment. An incredible collection of organizations collaborated with UNICEF to establish World’s Largest Lesson, providing free educational materials globally for children to learn about and engage with the SDGs, including those on climate action, sustainability, and ending poverty. More: https://tinyurl.com/uplift0923c

New York-based author and writer Jeff Gordinier, faced with the challenge of a long-distance romance, realized that relying solely on technology for communication might not be enough to sustain the relationship. To overcome this, he began sending postcards instead to his Los Angeles-based love interest, Lauren, as a way of staying connected. Over the course of a year, he sent her hundreds of them with all sorts of themes from all sorts of places, whether it was souvenir postcards from his travels around the world, merchandise postcards from his favorite music artists, or memento postcards of old magazine covers.

The charm of these deliveries became a source of delight and anticipation for Lauren; not only were they expressing Jeff’s love and longing for her but they were also helping to maintain a gentle and low-impact form of communication that provided a welcome counteraction to the overwhelming nature of modern electronic connection. He eventually expanded his postcard practice, sending cards to his children and other friends, and found that people appreciated the personal touch and the thoughtfulness behind receiving a physical postcard.

Eventually, Jeff’s relationship with Lauren blossomed, and they are now married with baby twins. Jeff even proposed to Lauren using a postcard. This touching love story highlights the power of postcards to strengthen relationships and create lasting real connection between people, offering a thoughtful alternative to the instantaneous nature of digital communication.

Writing and sending postcards has a therapeutic and centering effect for all parties. Investing time and effort into maintaining meaningful real-world relationships with those you genuinely care about is more important than ever in the age of digital connection.

Estonian designer Reet Aus did some deep digging to see how her clothes were being produced and recoiled at the discovery. She conducted her research not only through reading but also traveling the world, seeing firsthand the waste in the cotton fields in Peru and the clothing factories in Bangladesh. She saw that surplus fabric was discarded or burned. She loved her job, but the needless waste? She hated it. Aus decided to embark on a personal quest to find sustainable alternatives and create a positive change.

Driven by a deep sense of responsibility, Aus delved into research, seeking innovative ways to repurpose and minimize textile waste. Through experimentation and collaboration, she discovered upcycling, where discarded materials are transformed into new high-quality products. Her creations started to take shape, showcasing the beauty and potential hidden within waste.

But longevity in sustainability doesn’t come from a fresh idea. It comes from changing habits of consumers, which is what Aus set out to do. She set her mind to raising awareness of the sheer amount of waste in the fashion industry, approaching fast fashion giants such as H&M to rethink their business model, to no avail. But that hasn’t deterred her. One individual’s efforts can create a ripple effect that extends far beyond personal achievements.

By continuing to collaborate with activists and designers who see merit in her action and creating her own upcycled waste-free collections, she’s changing the industry in her way: slowly but surely.