Every Blue Day Monday during lunch, room 701 is filled with chattering students holding pens and markers, all busy drawing on cards. Junior co-presidents Grace Lin and Ruiyan Zhu walk around the room as students make these colorful cards filled with positive messages, overseeing their creation and future delivery to retirement homes and hospitals.
Art4Hearts allows students to gain volunteer hours by spreading warmth as they create handmade cards, art kits and craft kits. Art4Hearts has donated over 50 cards and kits to senior centers, nursing homes, hospitals, rehab centers and other non-profit organizations.
Lin and Zhu, who regularly volunteer at hospitals and animal shelters, founded the club this year. After noticing the demoralizing environment and the lonely patients in those places, they felt motivated to try to help. They recruited juniors Elli Kline as vice president, Soumya Katkere as treasurer, Tina Mohr as secretary and Mindi Hendley as outreach head.
“I remember one day Grace and I were FaceTiming and she suddenly told me about how depressing the hospitals were and how lonely some patients were, especially those who didn’t have family beside them,” Zhu said. “We went silent for a while, but I think that was when we became cognizant of how isolated some hospital patients must feel. Looking at the big picture, we realized that there were many groups that may feel isolated. Art4Hearts was created for the purpose of spreading warmth and kindness through art to those who need care.”
The club has consistent turnouts every meeting, with over 30 students regularly showing up. Sophomore Noah Ngyuen is one of many active participants in the club who have made many cards in hopes of being able to make a change.
“Knowing that you’re doing something good for another person you don’t even know is a positive thing,” Nguyen said. “Even a small gesture like card making can go pretty far for some people.”
The club regularly sends cards made by members to retirement homes nearby, such as Villa Fontana and the Villas at Saratoga. It is also trying to reach out to the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto through emails and phone calls.
Currently, the club is partnering with The Grateful Garment Project, a non-profit organization based in San Jose that provides clothing, toiletries and other miscellaneous items to those who have experienced sexual violence. The club plans to create 100 art therapy kits for victims. The kits include watercolor palettes, paintbrushes, pencils, pencil sharpeners and erasers all put together by club members.
The co-presidents hope to partner with more hospitals and non-profits to spread their cause even further. Their goal is to have a national platform in order to increase the community impact on a larger scale.
“We’re encouraging students to become more proactive and we’re also raising awareness about some groups that might have some social invisibility,” Zhu said.
