Sameea Patel, Amanda Van Fleet and Abby McCarthy had a lot of fun selecting art work for their cards. Haley Cashman shows off her work to her mom. When the group finished, there were hundreds of homemade cards created. (Jim Slonoff photo)
Each year the Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills Chapter of the National Charity League holds an all chapter meeting at which mothers and daughters team up on a project to benefit one or more of its philanthropic partners. This year's event took place at The Community House on Feb. 26 and benefited a pair of local organizations.
Mothers and daughters from the local NCL chapter gathered to create handmade cards and handwritten letters for residents of Birches Senior Living and Memory Care in Clarendon Hills. The endeavor doubled as a project to benefit the Hinsdale Historical Society and its upcoming celebration of the village's 150th birthday, with each card and letter including encouragement for Birches residents to share their stories of Hinsdale.
"Part of the celebration is to collect stories and memories of those who have been part of the community for a long time," said Christina Salerno, vice president of philanthropy for the local NCL.
Birches is one of 16 area organizations that benefit from the work of NCL's 120 mother-daughter teams, Salerno said. Throughout the year, members visit Birches to lead games of bingo, bake holiday cookies, read stories, serve meals and visit with residents.
The chapter's work with the Historical Society also extends beyond the cardmaking event. Members are helping to create a photo log documenting every home in Hinsdale as part of the 150th anniversary celebration.
"It's been an ongoing project that we've been working on for quite a while with them," Salerno said.
Along with information about the Hinsdale Historical Society project, the letters and cards created at The Community House included everything from hand-drawn pictures to poems and photos, Salerno said. Some writers shared information about their own lives, while other letters offered simple greetings to let the reader know someone was thinking of them.
NCL chapters across the country bring mothers and their daughters, from seventh-graders to high school seniors, together to perform philanthropic acts to benefit local charities and organizations. Each year NCL members donate nearly 3 million hours to more than 6,000 charities in the United States.
