SARASOTA, Fla. — With her business down amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Stacey Lynn Milholland saw an opportunity to life peoples’ spirits up.
“I think it’s an easy time to get lonely and depressed,” said Milholland, who owns her own custom print company in Sarasota called Designs by Stacey Lynn.
“If we can send a little piece of mail that makes somebody smile, even for just a few minutes, then why not?”
So began #HappyMail.
It started with a post on the Nextdoor app welcoming requests. All she asks for in return is some information about the intended recipient to help her choose a design. She says she'll include any message the sender wants.
She's not charging anything.
“I will do it as long as I can afford to,” she said, adding someone had already donated money to help cover the cost of materials and postage.
“People need to feel loved and not isolated," she said, adding that she knows people are struggling as we're being asking to social distancing and stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Marge McCarthy saw Milholland’s offer and immediately contacted her. McCarthy says her two grown children are considered "essential" workers right now, including her daughter who is a nursing student at Doctor’s Hospital in Sarasota.
“I know that she’s exposed daily and so I don’t how long it’s going to be before I’m able to touch either of them,” she said.
McCarthy’s daughter said the card was a welcome surprise considering she hadn’t been able to spend time with her parents since mid-February.
“I do miss them greatly,” said Amanda Sugg as she re-read the message in her card with a hand-drawn purple tulip on the front. “It says, ‘Amanda, your parents told me about you and asked me to send you tulips because they can’t kiss you right now.’”
Tulips—like two lips.
Milholland said she hopes doing something as simple as this will inspire others to find where they can help in their own unique way.
“Whether it’s leaving a bottle of water in your mailbox for the mailman or getting your girl scout troop to write cards to send to a nursing home in your area,” she said.
“Maybe they’ll take a minute to think about what they can do.”
Requests for cards can be made through Milholland’s website or by emailing her at designsbystaceylynn@gmail.com.
Milholland says she’s also accepting donations to help keep the project funded. She says she's taking requests to highlight specific people or industries, from grocery workers to truck drivers, healthcare workers, nursing home residents, new parents who she feels should be recognized during this pandemic.
- Pastor arrested, accused of violating 'safer-at-home' order by holding Sunday services
- Schools in Florida to remain closed through May 1 because of coronavirus
- Checkpoints set up along Florida border in effort to limit spread of COVID-19
- 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic files $94 million civil rights lawsuit from prison
- Stay-at-home vs. shelter-in-place: Here's what they mean
- Online petition calls for Gov. DeSantis to shut Florida down during COVID-19 outbreak
- Hotlines, websites offer the latest on COVID-19
FREE 10NEWS APP:
