Upper Deck to Host Cards for Kids Campaign in Toronto

Upper Deck recently profiled Cards2Kids, a charity where the mission is to get trading cards into the hands of kids.

Cards2Kids founder John Makowiec is a high school student . While juggling his studies and other school activities, Makowiec runs Cards2Kids setting up donation drives, organizing volunteers, talking with media and most importantly, getting cards to kids. He works with a variety of youth organizations to deliver cards to primarily children’s hospitals, working to brighten the days of those youngsters.

As Upper Deck learned more about Cards2Kids and particularly John, we realized this was an organization we wanted to work with. John approached Upper Deck about holding a donation drive at the Sports Cards & Collectibles Expo in Toronto on Nov. 11-13.

Collectors attending the show are encouraged to donate any NHL cards in their collection at the Upper Deck corporate booth. Representatives from Cards2Kids will be on hand to help accept the donations and answer questions about the program. On Sunday, staff will work to package up all the NHL cards received for kids. Once the show is completed, Upper Deck and Cards2Kids will donate packages of all the NHL cards received to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

"I am really excited to have the opportunity to be involved in one of the largest sports card events in the world,” said John Makowiec, founder of Cards2Kids. “This will be Cards2Kids' first opportunity to show the entire sports card community what we are trying to do, which is spread the joy of sports cards to as many kids as possible. In particular, we look forward to helping kids at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. I am really appreciative of Upper Deck and their willingness to help us in our mission to give sports Cards2Kids who are sick or cannot afford them."

“We are honored to have the opportunity to partner with Cards2Kids on their first international donation drive,” said Chris Carlin, sports marketing & social media manager for Upper Deck. “The card collecting community has big hearts so I fully anticipate we will see collectors donating several thousands of cards throughout the weekend to help with this very worthy philanthropic initiative.”