L.L. here. Procrastinating on a Saturday afternoon. (Subtext: I’m having trouble wresting Chapter 7 from deep consciousness.) Anyway, what better way to avoid a writing project than by writing… about a party?
Unh huh, a party. Here at High Calling Blogs.
Everybody knows that a central aspect of community is to have fun together. So let’s eat a few corn chips, savor the salsa, and play a game of cards in virtual fashion. While we’re at it, we can make the world a brighter place for people in need.
Here’s the deal. While at Jubilee, I met this pretty cool guy, Jeff Shinabarger. He started an organization that encourages people to invite friends over to play cards for an evening.
Entry to the party? A gift-card with leftover credit on it. Five cents. A hundred dollars. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Macy’s, phonecards, whatever. People have fun. They win some, they lose some, they laugh some. And when the party host sends collected gift cards on to Gift Card Giver, they sigh some, in contentment over doing good by having a good time (Jeff’s organization puts the donated gift-cards into the hands of non-profit organizations that use them for people in need).
Now, for the rules of the game:
1. PLAY: This week, send a gift-card with leftover credit on it to…
Marcus Goodyear
H.E. Butt Foundation
719 Earl Garrett
P.O. Box 290670
Kerrville, TX 78029-0670
If you know how much is left on the gift card, please write the value in permanent marker on the card.
2. SHARE: host an actual Gift Card party in your home, play a game of cards with your kids, take a picture of playing-cards (hey, Soul Per Suit people, we know you have a head start on this!), write a poem about cards, or do anything else you can dream up that’s card-related and blog about it by March 18, 2008. (Social media tip: participating in group writing projects can increase your blog traffic. : )
Link to Gift Card Giver in your post. Then we’ll do a grand celebration post and give you a little link-love to go with your chips and salsa. We’ll also let you know how many cards we collected. (Let’s see if we can surprise Jeff with a windfall.)
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Okay, it’s time I quit playing around and get back to Chapter 7. Can’t wait to see you at the House Party.
RELATED: LL’s Silly Little Barriers to Doing Good
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Do you think you can use a pre-paid phone card?
I have one with 60 min. of free talk time that we’ve never used and it hasn’t expired…..but I doubt they take these huh?
Thanks for the question Sarah (this is Jeff from Gift Card Giver) – Yes, we can use phone cards. We are collecting them to give to refugees to contact friends overseas. We have talked about using these for families of people in prison also. Hope that helps.
On a side note…you can also link to an interview that I had the opportunity to participate in that is airing on NPR all week that gives a great overview of the project:
http://www.worldvisionreport.org/index.php?option=com_stories&Itemid=28&id=322
I shy from parties — but a party for such a good cause? Count me in! I’ll bring a fizzy cranberry slushy, carmel popcorn… and flowers… so this wallflower will quietly match the decor ~smile~
Praying chapter seven emerges from the fog, L.L.
All’s grace,
Ann
Sarah… great!
Jeff… thanks for answering the question. And now for another question… any tips on how to figure out the value that is left on a card? I have no idea on mine.
Ann… oh, you at our party… yes… and I love what you’re bringing… my favorite flavors! As for chapter 7, it emerged. A little foggy, but here …
You can usually get the value left on your card in three ways:
1) Look it up online at the company website.
2) Call the 1-800# on the back of the card.
3) There are a few companies that don’t give either of these options (For Example: Home Depot), for those gift cards you must go into the store and have customer service help you.
Hope that helps…
I wrote about cards today for Make-Do Mondays and didn’t even know there was a card party in the works until Ann V. alerted me!
Great minds think…about cards?
A couple of weekends ago, we were visiting my parents and my youngest was upset about some gadget (probably his Nintendo DS) not working right. Or he was losing. Anyway, to divert his attention, I decided we needed to mix things up and pull people together. I had been talking with my 80yo dad in the dining room, so I invited everybody to join us at the table, from the 7yo son, to the 40-something-year-old me, to my 80yo dad. And what drew us all together, crossing all age gaps and personality differences?
A game of cards.
Jeff, yeah that helps (and it doesn’t ; – ) … ’cause now I have to face the lazy-factor in order to get this done.)
Ann, well, serendipity! Now if you just link here, you’re ahead of the game. (Um, pun not originally but now intended. : )
Jeff, another question. : )
Can you use store-credit cards? By which I mean, I found a Payless Shoes card in my wallet, that has store credit on it (apparently I was without receipt when I tried to return something).
Yes – we can use store credit. It usually works just like a gift card.
Jeff, I’m glad I met you and I hope we can connect again. In the meantime, thanks for your work on this project.
LL, nice post! Maybe there’s a program somewhere (Second Life?) where our avatars could sit around a table and play virtual cards. Okay, maybe not.
I told our Sunday School class about GiftCardGiver yesterday. We’ll probably host a card party sometime this year as a class.
Greetings again, it’s moi,
Okay, so I mailed my 60 unused phone gift card today, but when I post about my ‘card house party’, I have a question about the link supplied above which I’m to add to my blog post.
When I clicked the link it took me to Jeff Shinabarger (which I’m fine with), the founder of this all, or do I use the link of the actual site at: http://www.giftcardgiver.com/ ? Or does it matter? I just want to make sure I link this right.
Jeff, great… Payless Shoes is on its way. : )
Sam, I imagine we could play cards somewhere together on-line (who wants to research this?) Also, I’m thinking that another place to host a party is at one’s workplace, maybe at lunchtime?
Sarah, cool. Link where you like. I wanted people to see that Jeff had been on NPR with this. You can link to the actual site or whatever. Your call.
Okay, I just wasn’t sure, but I’ll just link to Jeff’’s site than, the one that you give above. Funny, because my ‘Card Party’ is a going to be one with just my kids and I…..ages 3 and 5…..this aughta be pretty fun/funny…..lol!
Count me in L.L., if my Ann Taylor Loft gift card is still good. The company is slated to fall to the recession by year’s end.
Jeff, what a great idea! I just hate carrying around cards that have less than a dollar still on them… but can’t throw them away either… it’s still “money” after all. I’d love to be able to donate them to a place that can accumulate enough of one type of card to make them worth something. I’ll see what I have stuffed in my sock drawer.
L.L. Thanks for the nod to SoulPerSuit. (We’re kicking off another card group in March, everyone, BTW. Playing through the book of Judges. Come by and play a hand or two!)
Our family plays a lot of card games. We’ll see what we come up with that’s bloggable.
ERICA! Thanks so much for designing that fantastic Gift Card Party Logo. I put it in my blog sidebar.
If you want to put a Card Party badge on your site, stop by these three remain (hopefully that link worked…if not, click my name in LL’s post above). I’m not sure how to tell you to get the html working so your badge links back here, but I just put the badge on my blog as a “picture” and then put the address to this post in the “link” box for the picture. I’m sure someone else has a better way to do it!
Also, I’m offering a $15 Starbucks Gift Card to whoever donates the most gift cards! I think this card party is a brilliant idea and a great community-building thing to do. Three Cheers for the powers that be at HCB!
Love, love, love, love the idea. And as one who is frequently looking for an excuse to hold a party, I appreciate the idea.
I’ll definitely talking more about this on my blog – and perhaps across lots of blogs/social media (
)
And wow, my little assigned avatar there is pretty scary! A card shark, perhaps? (hardy har har)
I’ve posted my ‘House Party’ on my website tonight with linkage to
‘Gift Giver’ and then also ‘High Calling Blogs’ for anyone who wanted to get involved.
Blessings, Sarah