ABOUT CARDS FOR KIDS

Cards for Kids started off in 2014 as a Non-Profit Corporation, and a Private Charitable Foundation. As the Foundation grew, and shipping costs grew, the money being spent to the State and Government for that status became badly needed for shipping costs so a change was desperately needed.

So now it's just Coach Hoffman giving his sports card collection away to kids. Although it is no longer a Foundation legally, we still refer to it as our "Foundation".
 

Our mission to bring smiles to the faces of hospitalized children by giving them cards of their favorite sports teams and players has changed also. Our new mission is to bring smiles to the faces of hospitalized, sick, and underprivileged kids by giving them cards of their favorite sports teams and players, and Florida Seashells. 

When I sat down and started planning the logistics of my Cards for Kids program it was apparent that I was only going to have a small percentage of the children at each hospital participate because not all kids are sports fans, and by percentage even fewer collect cards.
 

I was pretty much stumped, but finally I remembered back to 1971 when I visited some kids in a hospital. In 1971, shortly after being medically discharged from the Marines and told I would never be able to run, play sports, or do anything overly physical the rest of my life, my Uncle Ned got me a job with him working heavy construction in Columbus,  Ohio. About three months into the job I was approached by two fellow workers who said they played on a minor league football team and they had heard I was a football player. They asked me if I would like to try out for their team. I told them what the Doctor said in the Marines, and then told them "thanks", but I would have to think about it.
 

At that time I was leaning towards saying "no", but then an amazing thing happened.  I was dating a young lady who was a nurse at University Hospitalon Ohio State's campus. We dated for a while and then one day she asked me to do her a favor. She worked on a floor with kids and one of her favorite kids was crazy about football and wanted to meet me. I said "yes" and then what happened next was the most humbling experience of my life. After spending about an hour with a little boy named Kenny who had just lost a leg, and would never be able to play football, we were getting ready to leave when little Kenny asked me if I thought he would ever be able to play football. I didn't have the heart to say "no", so I told him "I'm willing to bet you Kenny that you will be able to do anything you want in life if you want it bad enough". The little boy smiled and we left.
 

I thought we were done because I was ready to start crying, but we were there almost three hours longer as she took me from room to room meeting "her" kids. The little kids I saw that day had a wide array of injuries and illnesses, but they all seemed to perk up when we entered their rooms. By the time we left I was the most humbled young man on planet earth.
 

Yes, after meeting little Kenny I quit feeling sorry for myself and decided to try out for that team. I guess my Hall of Fame ring sums that decision up, thanks to a little kid who had just lost a leg, but that isn't why I told you the story. I'm telling this story because while I was visiting the kids I noticed two things that stayed with me my entire life. One was how each kid perked up while we were in the room with them, and the other was I noticed each kid had something by their bed that was given to them that was special to them. It was amazing to me how simple some of the things were, but it didn't matter to the kids. One child had a little box of about five rocks and he guarded them like they were diamonds. He pointed to each rock and told me what kind it was, and who and where it came from.
 

So I asked myself "what is there out there that I can give to kids that have no interest in sports cards where I can reach a higher percentage of kids?"
 

The answer was simple, "Florida Sea Shells". They are free, easy to find, and kids love them. Also it just so happens that my other hobby happens to be snorkeling for sea shells, and I have thousands of them.
 

So now that I have the Sports Card program down to an exact science, I have just begun giving little bags of Florida Sea Shells away to all the kids who do not collect sports cards.
 

After bringing the shells home I soak them for 24 hours in a strong chlorine mix to kill all the algae and any other living germs. After rinsing them in two separate rinses for an additional 48 hours I then dry them out in the sun for 24-48 hours and then I put a clear latex coat on each shell to bring back the original luster and brilliance like it just came out of water for the very first time. The pictures of the shells are from just 3 hours of shelling with my wife Kathy.