The Hallmark NetWeaving Story

Several years ago, I was in Dallas, Texas and getting ready to make a NetWeaving presentation the next day.  I had an open evening and called an old friend who actually had reported to me when I was Marketing VP of an insurance company there back in the 70’s to see if he would want to get together for dinner.  My friend, Dick Evans, was now President and CEO of a company offering consulting services within the financial services industry.

My friend apologized that he had another commitment that evening involving a reception to which he had been invited but he indicated he had an extra invitation and would I like to join him.  The reception was at SMU and it was being jointly sponsored by the National Hispanic Corporate Council (NHCC) and SMU and it was a major announcement that SMU had been selected as a major executive training center for Hispanic Corporate Leaders.

As we walked in, one of the first persons we met was Pat Martinez, the Executive Director of NHCC and after we explained a little bit more about NetWeaving which she really liked immediately, she took me over and introduced me to Yolanda Casey, with Hallmark, one of the NHCC sponsor companies.  She, like Pat, immediately understood and took to the NetWeaving concept, and we promised to keep in touch.

Several months later – close to Christmas – I happened to be watching TV and an ad came on showing two very young African American children sitting beside a Christmas tree holding a storybook.  As they opened the book, the voice of their Grandmother greeted them and proceeded to read the book to them.

A light bulb went off in my head.  About 5 years ago, I had adopted an elementary school in south Atlanta in an economically challenged area which was almost completely composed of African-American children in grades K-5 – Whitefoord Elementary School.  Many of the children attending the school were either partially or entirely being raised by a Grandparent.  But I also was aware that some of them would not actually have had the reading skill level to read and record the children’s books and definitely wouldn’t have the funds to afford buying the books.

It struck me that if Yolanda, my previous connection with Hallmark, could introduce me to the right person there, perhaps they would be willing to donate some books which I could use and distribute at Whitefoord.  Then, because I had done NetWeaving programs for a literacy group in Atlanta, I felt we could find adult literacy volunteers who would work with some of the Grandparents (some parents as well) to teach them to be able to read, and then record the storybook stories.  What an exciting thought and a way to not only leave an enduring legacy, but for some, a first-step introduction into the wonderful world of literacy.

Sure enough Yolanda liked my idea and said that she would introduce me to Carol Hallquist, executive director of the Hallmark Foundation.  After I described the project to Carol in an email, I received back an apologetic response that this project would not fit in with their criteria for donations and at the time I didn’t exactly understand why.

Not being one to give up easily, I asked for a little more clarification as to why it wouldn’t work, and quite simply, the project I was talking about was just not large enough and would not have had the kind of impact for which they reserved their donations.  It came out that they only shipped the books to non-profits with strategic plans to be able to use a ‘truckload’ of the books.

Realizing that there are thousands of children in the Atlanta area – who like at Whitefoord – are being raised or strongly impacted by a Grandparent – some with reading skills but without the money to afford buying the recordable books, as well as some without the reading level ability to read and record the books.

Thanks to the generosity of the Atlanta Food Bank (AFB) and Bill Bolling, their Executive Director, agreed to store the truckload of 7,000 books until their distribution.  They also have a program for needy children where the recordable books, along with other donated school supplies, could be distributed through the Metro Atlanta Public School Systems and several others.  The AFB received 25% of the donated books in return for receiving and storing the books until we delivered them to various non-profit groups.

That first year, we not only distributed books to literacy groups to use in training adults to read making the ‘recorded’ storybook a wonderful Christmas gift to a child or grandchild, but to other non-profits like Safehouse Outreach, MUST Ministries, a couple of battered women shelters, and several others.

Then I thought of another angle, and that was to donate them to sick and in some cases, terminally ill children – having the child actually be the one to record the book.  So a fairly large number of books went to CURE Childhood Cancer and Camp Sunshine.    A few of the children who recorded the story at Thanksgiving did not make it to Christmas and you can just imagine what that book now means to those parents.

Unfortunately, the Atlanta Food Bank ran out of room to store the books, but luckily a good friend, Orlando Lynch, who was and still is the CEO of Atlanta Peach Movers, agreed to receive the shipments from Hallmark, store, and even distribute the books at no charge.

After sending Carol Hallquist at Hallmark some of the success stories from the first year, she was more than willing to continue the project.   In fact, without my requesting it, in addition to shipping 6,800 books the 2^nd year titled – “Grandpa” and the other one “Grandma”, they threw in sitting at a grand piano with Woodstock sitting at one end’.  When you pressed the ‘play button’, Snoopy rocks back and forth with the Peanuts theme song.

We distributed most of those books and stuffed animals to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and to Camp Sunshine, but also some to St. Vincent de Paul in Pickens County.

Later Hallmark contacted me indicating they were willing to ship a wider list of books which they did later that year.

We will never know the number of lives that were touched by Hallmark’s generosity, as well as that of Orlando Lynch, whose company continued this tradition of receiving, storing, and distributing them, for several years going forward.