C.O.O.L.

You Make Our Communities a Better Place
A look inside COOL: Collecting Ornaments On-Line
From Sue Goddard, Club President
Hallmark Sponsor, Kirlin’s Hallmark

COOL was formed in 1994 and is the first officially sanctioned online local club. Membership has grown to include 168 members from all over the U.S., Canada and even the U.S. territory of Guam! Imagine your local club meeting taking place in the comfort of your home or nearest computer—online via their web site www.collectingornamentsonline.com and e-mail server.

As with many of our local clubs, COOL members have always desired to give back to their communities through charitable donations. Last year, COOL decided to hold a raffle in conjunction with our KOC 20th Anniversary events. COOL club members donated prototypes, limited edition items from earlier Hallmark events and their own personal items as raffle prizes.

As you can imagine, there are challenges facing on online club to communicate and arrange all the details. COOL members rose to the challenge and gladly volunteered to bring all those details together—including stuffing their suitcases to get everything to the events. As Sue shared, “It felt a little like marshalling troops for a campaign, and our members were worthy of the task!”

The club voted and chose the Ronald McDonald House Charities as the recipient of the raffle proceeds. Through the efforts of the COOL club and all those who participated in the raffle, an unbelievable $3,000 was raised for this wonderful charity.

Another project last year resulted from the gift of a collection of lapel pins from a generous COOL member. This gift spurred other donations of pins. When the totals where in, over 100 lapel pins were donated. A pin sale in October netted nearly $1,000 to be donated to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.

Since 2003, COOL has donated over $13,000 to charities, including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Southeastern Guide Dogs Association and Kirlin’s Sentiments for Soldiers. This is just another example of how local clubs make a dramatic difference in communities all over our country. A big round of applause goes to COOL and all of our wonderful local club members.