Get Started!

How to start sending mail 

Many newbies to our group are confused because they want to jump right in doing things without first reading the instructions that are emailed to them. For instance, when you first join HUGS and HOPE, you receive a welcome email that contains important information and instructions. I highly recommend not only reading this email, but also printing it out for future reference!  The information contained in it is very important. 

Before doing anything else, please SUBSCRIBE to our group newsletter.  In the newsletter, we post updates on the kids and projects, etc.  You can subscribe by sending a blank email to HugsAndHopeNews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Each month, we post the stories and pictures of new children who are ill. We ask you to say a prayer for and mail a card to each child (and their siblings), along with a note of encouragement to the parents. To learn more about HUGS and HOPE, go to: http://www.hugsandhope.org/aboutus.htm.  

Any questions you could possibly have are sure to be answered on our Frequently Asked Questions page at
http://www.hugsandhope.org/faq.htm.  Please look for your question's answer there before contacting us.  

Step One

For newbies who want to send happy mail  CLICK ON THE "NEW KIDS"  link (which can be found on any page within our site)  OR click on the ENTER button that is on our main page.

This link will take you to the current month's web page where our newest stories are featured.  After reading the stories of the newest kids, if you'd like to mail cards to them, you will find addresses provided for each child here:  www.hugsandhope.org/kidslist.htm 

NOTE:   For safety reasons, all our club kids' mail is sent to an address different from their own homes.  The mail is then forwarded to them. 

If you'd like to mail cards to every one of our kids (or to several of them), we can provide a Word file containing addresses in a label format.  Send your request here and we'll email the file to you: suzaroo@earthlink.net.  You can print it on laser labels and you're all set to send a lot of happy mail!

PLEASE DO NOT SEND MAIL DIRECTLY TO THE HUGS AND HOPE OFFICE.  We will NOT forward mail for you to the children.   You must send your mail directly to each individual child.

For guidelines on what to mail to our sick children, click here.

Step Two

This is for those who wish to do more than mail cards to our new kids.   IF YOU WISH TO READ THE STORIES OF kids who were featured in previous months, click the "Past Kids" link, which is found on any of our web pages, or click here: pastkids.htm

The Past Kids page lists all our previous web pages by month. When you click on the underlined month, you will go to the page containing the stories and photos of kids who were featured in that particular month.   On this Past Kids page, some of the names of children appear in GREEN.  This indicates that they have graduated to good health.  

When you go from the past kids page to the previous months' pages to read old stories, you will see that children  who are now deceased will have a note in red at the top of their story. This red notation will indicate the date on which the child died. This way, there is no chance of you accidentally sending mail to a child who is no longer alive. Deceased children also have the word "Angel" before their names.  This is to alert you not to send mail to this child because he or she is no longer alive. However, you may wish to send a note to the family members to let them know they are thought of.

Another way to send mail to past kids WITHOUT going through all the old web pages and reading each child's story is to use our "KIDS LIST," which provides the name, age, birth date, interests and hobbies, web page URL, email address, and snail mail address for each child who is still living and active in our club. This list is really all you need for sending mail -- unless you want to read each child's story. The KIDS LIST can be sorted according to the state each child lives in, diagnoses, etc.  It can be accessed by clicking the link found on any of our pages or go to: kidslist.htm

** NOTE: This list does not have addresses for deceased children. Therefore, if you use this list as your guide, there is no chance of sending mail to a child who is no longer alive.

Each child's name on the KIDS LIST is linked to that child's story. So if you do want to go back to old pages and read about these kids who were featured in the past, you can click on the name of a child and you will go to the page where their picture and story were first posted.

Step Three

What if you have read about and sent mail to a child who was featured several months ago and you are wondering how that child is doing NOW?

All you need to do is check our updates page here:
updatepage.htm

This page is divided into three main sections.

1) The first section is a table listing kids who are hospitalized now or who have been recently or will be soon. Sometimes,  the hospital addresses are listed so that kids can receive their happy mail while they are undergoing treatment - rather than waiting till they get home.

2) The next section lists kids who have sent in recent updates.  You can check that list to see if a particular child has any news posted.

3)  The next section lists each of the kids and after each name has the last few updates that were sent in by their parents.

Quite often, volunteers will feel especially attached to a certain club kid and they will want to keep close track of how that child is doing. You can do that by checking this updates page daily.  It  changes every few days -- or as often as we receive any news from parents.

After each child's name (and before the news about the child), there is a date indicating when that news was received. This way, you know if what is posted about a child is very new, relatively new, or old news.

Also, each child's name is linked back to their original story for your convenience. So, if you want to view their photo and read what was originally posted about any child, just click on their name.

That wraps up the simple instructions for getting started in HUGS and HOPE and sending happy mail.

** A Few Suggestions **

1) At the beginning of each month, you might want to check the BIRTHDAYS page to see which children will be celebrating birthdays during the month. Ages, interests, mailing addresses are included at: birthdays.htm

2) For those who really want to jump in with both feet and get involved in other projects, visit the contact information page at contact.htm   This page explains some of the activities going on behind the scenes and tells you which volunteer is in charge of which project.  That way, you can contact the person in charge if you want to help with anything listed there.

3) For a detailed description of every page on our site, go tp map.htm

I highly recommend that everyone involved with HUGS and HOPE spend some time visiting the many different pages on our site and familiarize yourself with where everything is. No matter what questions you might have, I am confident that the answers lie within our web pages. It's just a matter of knowing where to find things.

When all else fails and you are really stumped, contact our "ANSWER GAL"  Mary S:  sockinabox@aol.com

If you email our "label lady" she'll send a Word file to you containing addresses of all our kids in label format.  All you have to do is print the addresses onto labels.    suzaroo@earthlink.net

CHILDREN'S CONFIDENTIAL HOME ADDRESSES:

I've been hearing a lot lately from parents who receive emails from strangers asking for their home address and their last name.  There is absolutely NO reason that anyone should ask for last names or confidential home addresses!   I've instructed parents NOT to give out this information.  Predators often disguise themselves online to appear as teenage girls to look innocent, so just because someone says she's a teenage girl, doesn't mean it's true. People who visit our site will find all the information they need about our kids there.  Please do not ask parents for personal information!  

   For guidelines on what to send to our club kids, click here.

Send some joy to a sick child!