It's Christmas Card Time
Diocesan Press Service. October 7, 1964 [XXV-2]
Americans are greeting card conscious. Year round, men, women and children search for appropriate cards. Part of their urge is for the weird, the risque, the old masters and old photographs retitled and subtitled. Traditional, religious and comic cards for every occasion, for every person flood the market. But more and more Americans are seeking handsome, different cards, and those whose sales support a recognized good work.
Among the latter are the greeting cards issued by the United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF. This program began in 1950 when the spontaneous creation of a 7 year-old artist from Bohemia was reproduced and sold to aid the Fund's humanitarian work among the world's children. UNICEF helps their countries protect their health, raise their level of education and prepare them for a useful life. UNICEF assists over 500 programs in more than 100 countries. It makes grants to train medical personnel, teachers, social workers, child specialists. It furnishes equipment for health centers, milk processing plants and to construct sanitary facilities. It collaborates with local officials and non-governmental organizations in carrying out both emergency and long range programs.
A number of Episcopal cathedrals, among them the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Washington, D. C., distribute Christmas cards, using the proceeds to help finance their work. Washington Cathedral Christmas cards will include reproductions of famous paintings and tapestries, a picture of the Cathedral and a detail from one of its stained glass windows. Washington Cathedral has been distributing Christmas cards since 1926 when the staff responded to the dismay of many at the lack of cards with suitable religious themes. The response led to making it an annual affair.
UNICEF relies on voluntary contributions from governments, gifts by individuals and on a limited number of fund-raising activities. One of the most important of these is the annual sale of UNICEF greeting cards. Since 1950, 79 of the world's most prominent artists have contributed paintings: Matisse, Miro, Chagall, Picasso and others. Through 1963, 150 million cards had been sold, with proceeds totalling $8,250, 000. One box of ten UNICEF greeting cards, priced at $1.25 means enough penicillin to cure 20 children of yaws, a crippling tropical disease. Or it means enough antibiotics to save four young victims of trachoma from possible blindness. Five boxes mean protection for 35 children against malaria for a full year. The UNICEF cards originate in many countries. This year's selection includes scenes of Indonesia, France, New York, Vietnam, Sweden, and Puerto Rico.
Nearly 3,400, 000 Washington Cathedral cards were purchased by more than 150, 000 families throughout the country last year. They are sold in boxes of 10 and can be ordered in any assortment, from many copies of one style to single copies of all 10 cards. The proceeds from these cards help to operate the physical plant, to pay salaries, and to aid in the Cathedral's missionary outreach program.
UNICEF cards can be ordered throughout the U. S. Committee for UNICEF, Greeting Cards, P.O. Box 22, Church Street Station, New York, N. Y. 10008. For sample assortments of Washington Cathedral Cards, one should write Washington Cathedral, Christmas Card Division, Mount Saint Alban, Washington, D. C. 20016.