Cardstore.com is pleased to feature Artist Guest Blogger Kate Spain. To see Kate’s collection of Holiday Cards and Greeting Cards, click here.
One day this August, I received an e-mail from a woman named Deloris in Mississippi through Cardstore’s site, which links to featured artists’ websites.
In her note to me, Deloris explained that her community of Greenville, Mississippi, had lost a great friend and leader this year, Malcolm Carl Walls, Sr. She and her friends were planning a memorial service in Malcom’s honor coinciding with the annual Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival that Malcolm had helped start and build into a world-famous annual event.
They needed a special card to send out for the event and asked me if I would design it.
It’s not every day that I get to connect with a consumer on such a personal level. I’m so glad that Deloris and I did. But it wouldn’t have happened without Cardstore. Everyone there, from CEO Marty Reed to Katy in Design to Tiffany in Marketing, really made it work.
Cardstore CEO and Chairman Marty Reed shared his thoughts on Deloris’ special request:
“We were inspired by Deloris and her friends’ efforts and by Malcolm’s work in raising the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival. Like Kate Spain, we wanted to pitch in. So Kate created a great custom design, and we produced it on the finest quality cards and had them delivered to Deloris’ door.”
Deloris shared with me and Cardstore that Malcolm Carl Walls, Sr., was an inspiring leader in MACE (Mississippi Action for Community Education, Inc.) over the past 3 decades involved in empowering poor and disadvantaged citizens within its service area by developing their individual and collective capacities to effect social and economic change and improvements within their lives and communities.
One of the more renowned projects that Malcolm took from vision to fruition was the regional blues festival, which has now become the world-famous Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival. Starting out as the producer and director of the event, Malcolm grew it into what it is today by building on the strengths of everyone in the region and bridging the region with the greater blues community. Thirty years since its first trial run under the guidance of Malcolm, the festival is recognized as one of the top arts and tourism events in the southeastern United States, attracting more than 10,000 attendees and participants annually.
Cardstore and I were very happy to help Deloris and her community get the right card to celebrate and honor this inspiring man.
The Finished Product!
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