Creative Thank You Notes

These are roughly chronological (sorta), with the newest stuff at the bottom of the page.

This is the most beautiful hand-made card I've ever gotten. I wish I knew who painted it. And if you know the language and can tell me what the words say, I'd love it if you'd send me a translation. The inside of the card below is nice, too.

The next three all go together. The first is the cover, and the next two are the right and left inside pages respectively. This was a very large card done on over-sized fancy-textured card stock.

Don't know where this next one was from, but I sure like it. It was a giant-sized card. Here's the front. And below it is the insides with all the kids signatures.

The next 15 all go together (they came held together with yarn). This is my all-time favorite thank you note I've ever gotten.

Next comes a drawing on the back of a mailer done by a boy at Shriners Hospital in Springfield MA. This guy had been severely burned over most of his body, was strapped to a vertical board, could only move his head and arms, but was cheerful and enthusiastic beyond belief for someone in his condition. Christos Anapis, if you're reading this, contact me and let me know what you're up to. I'd love to hear from you.

The following poem was written by my niece and was included with a thank you letter for a birthday present I gave her. I love you, Emily-pin.

This was my old logo which they used as the front of the birthday party invitation for another niece. I love you, Heidi. I really like the colors. I performed at her party in exchange for a flute for my darling daughter.

And this was the first of several drawings Heidi drew for me. I haven't figured out why the others aren't scanning in very well. But they are all wonderful drawings of what we did at her party.

This is the cover of a little booklet that included a whole bunch of scribbly drawings by the kids at the party. And yes, those are indeed popsickle sticks masquerading as my stilts at the bottom!

The original of this 1992 thank you from St. John the Baptist School is both very colorful and on a very big 1.5' x 2' piece of poster paper. The message at the top is in green marker, and all the signatures are in red, green, or purple.

Back in the 90's, It was my great pleasure to entertain the children each day while the adults were building the fantastic playground structure at the Jackson Street School in Northampton MA. I'm really proud to have been a part of putting up what is still the most wonderful playground in town!

This next one is by my daughter about a month before her 6th birthday. I just love you so much, my darling daughter!!!

I haven't pinpointed which "Stephen" did the following drawing with commentary.

I haven't tracked down where this one is from either.

But these next two (front and insides) are by a little girl who's birthday party I performed at three years in a row in the 90's! Yay Shira Greiman! Let me know what you're doing these days, Shira.

And a year later, Shira sent me this great thank-you picture! That's she and I on the right. I just love the hats with legs on the table.

Next, a very artistic note from former housemates that we had over for dinner one night. (My lovely wife is an excellent cook!)

This one came from a boy, perhaps 8 or 9 years old, at St Paul's Lutheran Church in Greenfield MA where a performed 3/9/8 for their "Carnival Day" for the second time. This boy was very chummy and hung around with me after the show while I was packing up. He told me he was going to vote for me and then made me this picture to put on my campaign buttons. I told him I'd make a lousy president, but he said, "That's okay... you'd be funny!"

April 10, 2008, I did a return engagement at Rec Place Afterschool in Newton MA. Afterwards, director Nance Miller handed me an envelope with this homemade card in it. The upper image is the front of the card. The lower image is the inside.The back is stamped "A Creation By Rec Place Kids 545 Grove Newton MA". It's a great place, a great program, and a great card!

Hannah Wald is the daughter of a magician friend of mine.

It was my great pleasure to help the Hilltown Food Pantry in Goshen MA at their Open House 6/8/8. It was a wonderful event! The corn and the carrot were there, but I think the tomato must have been off somewhere getting sauced.

It was a lot of FUN to entertain Lindsay Briggs and her friends and family at Lindsay's 6th birthday party 7/3/8 in Hardwick MA. A few days later I got this really nice card from her that she wrote herself. YAY Lindsay!

When I was performing at the Grand Summit Hotel at Mount Snow in W Dover VT 12/28/8, I did a 4:00 show and a 7:00 show. Two little girls who were at the first show, showed up at the second show with these delightful thank-you notes. Neither of them seemed to have any problems writing across their artwork: Victoria wrote across my hat and Lorraine signed her name right over my face! Lorraine thanked me for the sticker I gave her and then gave it right back to me on her thank-you note! And as you can tell from Victoria's picture, one of the reasons why my real stilt pants have vertical stripes is that horizontal stripes make me look FAT! (I'm actually a skinny beanpole.)

Debbie Laliberté booked me three times for her children's birthday parties. On 3/31/01, after Maddy's 6th birthday party, she handed me this little book that Maddy had put together while I was packing up my equipment. I just love it that it diverges from the theme towards the end.

When my lovely wife was in library school, she did an internship at Hatfield Public Library in Hatfield MA. Her recommendation to the head librarian got me a gig there 7/20/10 entertaining a very lively group participating in the HPL Summer Reading Program. I got this large (12" x 17") delightful thank you note in the mail afterwards.

Okay, so this one's not exactly creative, but it is beautiful... and the event was creative. On 9/18/11, the Trinitarian Congregational Church in Northfield MA held it's first day of Sunday School worship service outdoors at the Shearer Farm in Northfield looking out over the Connecticut River. My performance for the congregation was actually included as part of the service! And afterwards there was a terrific picnic with lots of great food, FUN activities, and good fellowship.

After Camden DeLude's 7th birthday party in E Berlin CT 3/18/12, she handed me this delightful image wrapped around a big box of M&Ms. And her mom sent everyone the Thank You page of photos below it.

And then, after her brother, Calvin Delude's 6th birthday party on 9/2/12, I got this in the mail soon after that:

For maybe the 5th or 6th time, I lead a weekly games class in the Fall of 2012 for the Community Home School Group in Amherst MA. After my final class this time around, the kids presented me with a gift that included these 5 thank you cards on colored aluminum foil (side by side are front and back of the same one) along with a container of "organic home made vegan granola bars" the kids had made in cooking class and a fancy dark chocolate bar.

Since 2011, I've been leading the Springfield MA Shriners Hospital's annual Walk-a-Thon each year. It's a wonderful event to raise funds for all the FREE care they give to children. In 2016, I was delighted to get this thank you. (NOTE: although it says "October 2016" on the card, the event is in September each year. October is when I got the thank you note.)