Kaitlyn Chana is an industrious, thoughtful and very busy young woman. The 16-year-old Lake Brantley junior is the founder and president of Love Letters: Random Cards of Kindness, Inc. Love Letters is a non-profit national organization whose mission is to create positive and inspirational homemade cards for children with life-threatening illnesses. Last December, Love Letters was recognized as a Point of Light by the Points of Light organization.

At school, Chana is involved with television production, the Institute of Finance, and Business Professionals of America. This future broadcast-journalism major spends about 15 hours a week creating Love Letters cards for sick children—and still manages to maintain a 4.2 GPA. And on January 12th, she was crowned Miss Winter Park Outstanding Teen for the Miss America Teen system.

Inspiration
Chana’s inspiration came from Linda Bremner, the founder of Love Letters Inc., who started the original organization when her son Andrew was battling cancer. Bremner had told Chana, “It only takes one person to move a mountain, and then others will follow,” and Chana was moved by her words.

Bremner started Love Letters, Inc. after Andrew died. She looked through his special box and found the names and addresses of his cancer camp friends, and decided to send each of them a note. She started receiving responses from them, including one that said, “I didn’t think anyone knew I was alive.” As a result, Bremner began sending weekly cards to her son’s camp friends—which grew to 1,200 cards a week to children with life-threatening illnesses across the United States.

Bremner died in March 2006. When Chana received that news—and that Love Letters Inc., was closed at Bremner’s request—Chana remembered Bremner’s words and decided “to be the one to move the mountain to help children.” She took the initiative to carry on Bremner’s legacy by encouraging others to create cards through Love Letters: Random Cards of Kindness, Inc.
  
Messages of Hope
The cards have uplifting messages such as “Sending You a Great Big Hug,” “You Shine Like a Star” or “Believe in Yourself” to give children faith, courage and the will to survive. (Not to mention a little cheer!) There are no “Get Well” messages, because that’s a reminder of illness: the cards are designed to bring them smiles.

Bringing smiles is Chana’s organization’s mission. A Love Letters card is designed to make these kids laugh or smile, so the cards are always fun, colorful and upbeat. Each card is unique, hand-crafted with stamps, stickers, scrapbook paper and art supplies. Most of the cards are mailed, but Chana hand-delivers some of them to children going through difficult treatment or surgery. She frequents local hospitals and organizations such as Give Kids the World and the Ronald McDonald House. She has also worked with local businesses including David Maus Toyota, Ruggie Wealth Management and ScrapYourTrip.com, all of which have donated to the Love Letters mission.

To date, the organization has touched more than 10,000 children and their families. Chana is now working with 38 individuals in 19 states, two in Canada, and a student from South Korea to establish Love Letters chapters.

Spread the Love
Love Letters always needs resources: donations of cash or supplies such as note cards, envelopes, stickers, stamps and markers. And the organization always needs volunteers to create cards (e-mail Chana for details.) Because more cards mean more smiles on these children’s faces. S

Love Letters: Random Cards of Kindness, Inc., 865 N. SR 434, Altamonte Springs; kachana@cfl.rr.com; LoveLettersCares.com.