I wish I had a big yellow umbrella that would keep away all the rain in your life.

I would hold it over your head, and the drops would splash, splash and you would never even feel it.

But I don’t have a big yellow umbrella—so I’ll walk through the rain with you.

Love one another.  JOHN 13:34 The Message

The words above started out as encouragement from one friend to another. But they recently received worldwide recognition when the card featuring them won “Card of the Year” at the LOUIE awards in New York City. That honor was especially meaningful to DaySpring Writer Holley Gerth and Designer Heather Steck.

Heather and Holley both arrived at DaySpring in the summer of 2001 and quickly became close friends. Later that year, Holley received an e-mail from Heather that said she was having an especially rough day. “As I sat there thinking and praying about what to say to her, the message featured in the Card of the Year came to mind,” said Holley. “I quickly typed it as a reply and sent it back to her. Heather was encouraged by the words and the message became special to both of us.”

At that time, DaySpring did promo lines, small lines of about 20 cards featured in the summer. Anyone from the company could submit an idea for one. “The e-mail message I sent to Heather sparked an idea for a friendship line,” says Holley, “so we submitted a line called ‘Heather and Holley’ and it was accepted. That meant Heather got to bring the yellow umbrella card to life.”

A few years after the promo line had lived out its time in the stores, the yellow umbrella card was chosen for a new line and Heather redesigned it. Then it won a LOUIE award!

“What means the most to me about this card is that it was a labor of love,” says Holley. “It came from our hearts. God can use any of us to make a difference in the lives of those around us. When we bring encouragement to others, He sometimes returns it to us in ways we never expected.”

The LOUIE awards are the “Academy Awards of greeting cards” and were started by the Greeting Card Association (GCA) in 1988. Named after German lithographer Louis Prang, who is credited with the birth of the American card industry in the 1870s, the LOUIES are the coveted award of the illustrators, creators, writers, and companies behind the design of greeting cards. This year the GCA celebrated not only those special card designers, but also its 20th year anniversary. The competition drew over 1,000 entries in 63 categories.

—Brenda Turner, DaySpring Director of Communications