Seed Collaborates with St. Elizabeth Healthcare to Refresh Greeting Card Program

For the past six months, Seed Strategy has been working closely with Northern Kentucky’s St. Elizabeth Healthcare to create a meaningful refresh for the hospital’s internal greeting card program.

With a new name, a fresh look and a streamlined user experience, the Care Card program is already making a positive impression with patients, families and the community.

Originally known as e-Cards, the patient greeting card program is a part of St. Elizabeth’s Volunteer Services, designed to provide an easy way for friends and families to send well wishes to their loved ones in the hospital. However, while e-Cards were a much-appreciated service, many hospital volunteers felt that it wasn’t being utilized to its fullest potential.

A cross-functional Seed team rose to the challenge, collaborating with St. Elizabeth Marketing Communications Coordinator Charlie Schicht, their web development team and key members of Volunteer Services to craft a new vision for the program.

“We have wanted to upgrade the cards for many years,” said St. Elizabeth Volunteer Services Program Assistant Jan Schipper. “All of my staff and the volunteers are excited beyond belief for the new cards; the Seed team’s excitement and energy really shows in the work they’ve done.”

Working hand-in-hand, Seed copywriters, designers and the full St. Elizabeth team began remodeling the existing program, beginning with refreshing the brand and creating a broad range of card options, from light-hearted get-well wishes to compassionate messages for hospice residents.

With over 60 newly created cards to choose from, the combined team was also sure to devise an appropriate communication strategy, as well as reorganizing the Care Card website to provide a more user-friendly experience.

“Seed Strategy and St. Elizabeth Healthcare have been able to bring the best of ourselves to light and to hopefully bring some warmth and good feelings to those in need,” said Schicht. “Spearheaded by two of our own volunteers, they were able to help connect the dots so both teams could come together to update the e-Card system.”

In fact, the grandmother-granddaughter volunteer team at the impetus of the initiative, Anita Cherry and Jacqueline Jones, recently received the honor of St. Elizabeth Healthcare Volunteer Advocates of the Year.

“My joys are many. It was wonderful to be involved in the creative process and share the enthusiasm with my granddaughter and the team at Seed Strategy,” said Cherry. “Most of all, my joy comes from delivering the new Care Cards and witnessing the pleasure and comfort patients feel in knowing someone cares about them by sending blessings, encouragement and sometimes laughs!”

“The Care Card refresh was such a unique and meaningful project, with every step of the process bursting with passion and inspiration,” said Seed Strategist and project leader Kate Mathers. “From branding to card creation to strategic execution, it was truly a collaborative, enterprise-wide project—all made sweeter by the fact that each card helps bring comfort to local families in the St. Elizabeth Healthcare system.”

The contemporary look and feel of the refreshed program only strengthens the true heart of the effort: every personalized card is hand-delivered to patients by St. Elizabeth volunteers. It’s this human element that always has—and always will—make the program such a resounding success.

“Our volunteers embody a sense of selflessness and giving,” said Jenelen Dulemba, St. Elizabeth’s Director of Volunteer Services. “That same spirit was found in our partnership with Seed Strategy and the work they did on the new Care Cards.”

To learn more about the St. Elizabeth Care Card program, visit www.stelizabeth.com/carecards