A new project was launched recently by a group of Pleasanton Foothill High School students seeking to comfort, cheer, and inspire individuals during these tough times. The Foothill High School Graphic Design Club created and hosts the Cards to Humanity website that allows visitors to create, share, and enjoy small digital greeting cards. “The Cards to Humanity website aims to give people more opportunities to connect with each other digitally and smile together although we remain apart,” as student Jocelyn Tao notes.

Robert Gan, the president and founder of the Graphic Design Club, came up with the initial idea and recruited other members of the club as well as programmers outside of the club to turn his vision into a reality. Gan, who will be a senior in the autumn, started hand-making holiday cards with his mother as a seventh grader. With local support, hundreds of cards have been delivered every year to local seniors via the Meals on Wheels program. As Gan started planning card delivery for the 2020 holidays, he realized that physical card delivery might not be safe for older adults this year. Why not make the project digital and broaden it to anyone and everyone who needs a bit of cheer?

Cards to Humanity encourages visitors to create cards in any medium, from a drawing to a letter to a pithy quote to a lovely image, and then upload the cards so they can be shared with others. New cards are especially welcome, and so is letting others know about the existence of this new website. Visitors can also simply share with friends and relatives one or more of the cards already available.

“It is very easy to have this divide between the elderly and the rest of the community, especially with young people,” says Gan. “I wanted this website to be a medium through which humanity can reconnect itself, that humanity can sort of bridge the divide that we have created over time. We are not going to let each other, elderly or otherwise, just feel left out of society. We are going to do everything we can to try to show our support for each other. And if that means that we are going to have to do it online and avoid actually meeting each other, then we are going to do that.”

Eight Foothill High students are responsible for the design and marketing of Cards to Humanity. In addition to Gan, they include Vincent Hsu, Justin Jeong, Jocelyn Tao, and Geoffrey Xiang. The software development team is made up of several students, including Will Liang and Oliver Trevor.

“Art is a universal invention,” notes the group’s mission statement. “Throughout history, we as a species have often taken advantage of its capacity to connect, inspire, and express. It is a glue that binds our experiences together. We intend to celebrate this cornerstone of our humanity at a time when humanity is being challenged. The Foothill High School Graphic Design Club is proud to host this project as a testament to how our creativity can bring joy and hope no matter what our situation may be.”

For more information about Cards to Humanity, please visit www.cardstohumanity.com.