St. Louis holiday cards hit in boosting New Yorkers' spirits

ST. LOUIS -- Those holiday cards gathered in St. Louis received a warm welcome in New York City.

The half-dozen volunteers who spent a day in New York handing out more than 6,000 cards say they were surprised by the warm reception. The cards were given to strangers on the streets of New York on Dec. 21 with this message: "I'm from St. Louis. We collected holiday cards, and this one is for you."

It was part of the Hugs & Kisses campaign organized by Debbie Lavender of the St. Louis suburb Kirkwood as a way to help boost the spirits of New Yorkers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The cards had been donated by St. Louisans from preschools to nursing homes. They included cards celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year's. The cards were dropped off at Schnucks stores and at Pro Rehab of Florissant, where Lavender works as a physical therapist.

Lavender expected a cold reception from wary strangers. That wasn't the case.

"There was a look of gentle surprise on people's faces," Lavender said. "Many of them wanted to thank the person in St. Louis who wrote the card and were disappointed if there was no return address."

On several occasions, a pedestrian would brusquely take a card and walk on, only to turn around with tears in his eyes a half-block away when he realized what the card was.

"There was a lot of hugging and crying that day," Lavender said.

Exhausted and stuck in traffic about 10:30 that night, the group had about 300 cards left of the original 6,343. They spotted a New York fire chief's car. Inside, a man dressed as Santa agreed to distribute the remaining cards at firehouses.

Lavender's inspiration for Hugs & Kisses came when she received an e-mail from a New York friend who wrote of the attacks which claimed about 3,000 lives at the World Trade Center. "We just stay angry so we can cope every day," the e-mail read.

Lavender said she wanted to try to change that.

She knew about the blood drives and the monetary donations, but wanted to do something else to lift people's spirits.

"Everyone wants to make a difference in their life," Lavender said. "I think we did on that day. St. Louis touched a lot of lives."