By Meredith Bryant, Contributor

It is Mission Month at Manhattan College; faculty, and staff are able to volunteer and give back. One of the simplest and somewhat new opportunities for people to give back is through Cards for a Cause.

Cards for a Cause is a volunteer project created in October 2014 by Tiffanie McIntosh, a senior women’s soccer player who is graduating in May.

“Students gather together and they make cards for local causes. A fire station or a police station or a children hospital or a homeless shelter. The goal of it is to brighten someone’s day or thank people for their services,” McIntosh said.

In 2014, McIntosh reached out to the Director of Campus Ministry and Social Action, Lois Harr. She asked questions regarding where funding would come from and was put in touch with the right people to get Cards for a Cause rolling.

“It was something that I always liked to do, to make hand made cards cause I thought they were fun and they made people feel special. So I thought why not bring something I love to do, to the community. And get them involved in that too,” McIntosh said.

Soon after she spoke with Harr, she started gearing up volunteers to help her to get the project going. She immediately turned to her teammates to get them involved in community service. From her team, she went to other athletic teams and posted some flyers to get more volunteers outside of athletics to help.

Freshman student Sara Poons, is a frequent volunteer for Cards for a Cause.

“I first heard about it [Cards for a Cause] when they had the club/activities fair on the quad in the beginning of the year. McIntosh was trying to get people to sign up. I was interested so I started going to the meetings,” Poons said.

The inclusive nature of Cards for a Cause is what has drawn in the students for the last year and a half.

“I think it fits the community value [of MC] because many students come together each week to make cards and its sort of social justice too because anybody can join,” she said.

Cards for A Cause first started out with a few people making cards. It has grown into students gathering in Cornerstone in Miguel Hall on Wednesday nights. Together, they are able to collectively create and complete up dozens of cards.

“It’s really cool for me to see the participation from other athletes. Not just the athletes, but I’ve been able to pull form other areas on campus and have them interested and want to come back and want to participate. So it’s just really awesome,” McIntosh said.

To volunteer at Cards for a Cause, the group meets Wednesday nights at 7pm in Cornerstone in Miguel.