Letters of Love Gala gives back to Minnesota Children’s Hospital
February 20, 2020
Margaret Kraus
Sports Editor
In Oct. 2018, then junior Grace Berbig founded the Letters of Love Club to bring people together to make cards for patients at the Children’s Hospital. Berbig’s idea came from the time she spent in the hospital as a child while her mom was undergoing cancer treatment.
She wanted to be able to give support to the children who were going through similar things that her mom did, without having to give back through monetary gifts. As of this year, the club now has over 500 students involved, which is over half the student body.
This school year, Berbig and two other seniors, Jack Norman and Colette Mayhew decided to create a Letters of Love Gala as their DECA project, competing in the category “Community Awareness”. The group’s vision was to create a gala that gives students the opportunity to support those in the hospital without having to raise money and to bring all of the club members together.
During the planning stages of the gala, they knew that they wanted to create stations for attendees to make cards, friendship bracelets and tie blankets to give to the patients at the hospital. They needed to rent a large enough space for all the attendees and pay for food, security, decorations, and supplies for the stations. The group set up a GoFundMe page and met their goal within a week of setting up the page.
“The hardest part of planning the gala was finding the money to do it, but we had so many generous donors and ended up raising an extra $2,000 than what we needed,” Mayhew said.
Prior to the gala, the team recruited several brands and small businesses run by teenagers to come and set up booths to sell their products. Some of the vendors included senior Josie Peterson’s necklace company, Third Times a Charm, and senior Amiya Kokate’s custom clothing brand, Styles and Stitches. They also were selling their own Letters of Love merchandise at a table run by Letters of Love board members.
“I reached out to several teen vendors and invited them to come to the gala,” senior board member Jack Mhyre said.
The gala took place on Jan. 31. The night began with doors opening at seven p.m. with light food being served, time to peruse the vendor tables and work on making cards or blankets. Shortly after was the main program of the gala, listening to speeches from Berbig and three hospital patients. After hearing the patients’ stories and how they have been impacted by the things Letters of Love does for the hospital, the DJs took over and hosted a dance party for the rest of the evening. There was confetti thrown, bubble machines used and balloons being tossed around the mosh pit. “Seeing everyone have fun made it so rewarding,” Mhyre said.
Letters of Love has grown to a multi-school program, and now has chapters at 19 different schools in Minnesota, and will be rolled out into other states and countries next year.
“The best part of being involved has been seeing the organization grow so rapidly. It’s been really cool,” Norman said.
The members of the club reached out to different people they knew to grow the club into what it has become. The expansion has been a large part of their DECA project. “We had friends who lived in different states who are starting clubs at their schools next year, so we are expanding to places like California, Wisconsin, Ohio, and I have friends in Austria, Italy, and Germany who are starting clubs next year as well. One of the foreign exchange students has friends who are interested in starting clubs in South Africa and Poland as well, so that is super cool,” Berbig said.
In addition to expanding to multiple schools, Berbig announced at the gala that Letters of Love is now recognized as a non-profit organization. This means that they are able to hire employees and are exempt from taxes. Berbig is the president of the organization.
As of what she’s learned, Berbig says that the founding of this club and its success so far has taught her that even the smallest acts can change lives and help people.
“It is so rewarding to hear the stories of patients and how much it makes their day,” Berbig said.
