Anyone who knows Midale's Mariah Erickson likely receives a Christmas card every year, and maybe even a birthday card, or perhaps a condolence card, as well, if needed.

"It all started with my 95-year-old nanny, she kind of gave me an inspiration to do it," shared Erickson. "She sent birthday cards and Christmas cards every year, and I thought that sounds like something I'd like to do. So then I started doing that, and then pretty much everybody who knows me knows I send cards every year. But this year in particular, I sent 500 cards." 

She said she begins the endeavour by around the month of October.

"But honestly, I think about Christmas year round. So I probably started sometime earlier than not, getting cards." 

Erickson said she has an inventory of cards in her basement, some of which were given to her and others she found in bulk or got them at thrift stores.

 

"It's definitely my hobby, and I know I can't send millions of dollars to charity, but it's just a little something that I know even for 10 seconds someone has taken gotten the smile out of it," she commented.

Each year, she also sends them to the troops, to several nursing homes, and even to the families at the Ronald McDonald House in Saskatoon.

"I just kind of phoned them and I asked permission if I could send there because right now with the pandemic I wasn't sure, and then I got a base number of how many kids at the time there were, and unfortunately they wouldn't give me names due to privacy, so I just sent to 'any child'." 

Erickson even sends them to friends she's met along the way, like the local photographer who took her engagement photos several years ago, Christan Barker.

 

"Literally the birthday cards that she sends me arrive exactly on time every single year. Like it's crazy," she shared. "Every Christmas I get one from her, and usually the Christmas ones will have a picture in it, and then I get a birthday card every single year. I look forward to it every single year."

"Actually in the last year, because we lost two of our pets, she sent me a condolence card, like right away, every single time that we lost one, and even like a few years ago when we lost a pet, she sent me a condolence card, then too, which I just think is so nice," Barker noted. "And honestly, her cards, you can tell that there is a lot of thought put into them, she will write little letters in them... they're not just your average Hallmark card that you get from downtown.

 

Barker says it was no surprise to learn this year Erickson sent 500 cards.