It's just short for Make A Child Smile... and we use it a lot!!

No! MACS is not a Pen Pal website. Please read the question "Will I receive a reply from the kids or their parents?" below for more information.

The purpose of MACS is to tell stories of children battling serious illnesses and then give our website visitors the opportunity to mail a cheery card/letter and/or gift to brighten their day. We encourage you to send REAL MAIL, not e-mail to our children (read more about e-mail/e-cards further below).

No! Some kids' prognosis and life expectancy is very good and they will live long lives. Unfortunately, some other kids do have illnesses with no known cure or treatment, and we don't know how much longer they will live. So please DO NOT refer to all kids on this website as terminal or dying. You can refer to them as "chronically ill children".

Current Kids are those who have been featured LESS than 1 year ago.

Previous Kids are those who have been featured MORE than 1 year ago. (Note: Some "Previous Kids" are still sick, while some are already leading a normal healthy life. Please visit their website to read more about how they are doing.)

Inactive Kids are those who we lost contact with, or their parents do not wish to share their child's personal website with the public. In 2008, having and sharing a personal website, became a requirement for all new kids and previously featured kids.

No, you don't need to sign up for anything! Just send lots of cheery mail to as many kids as you wish!

We do suggest that you subscribe to our MACS Newsletter so you can keep up with any important changes to our website; be notified if the mailing address of any of our kids has changed, or if a child has passed away.

ONLY to the families of our Angels.
These families don't receive much mail anymore since their child passed away, but some people would like to send something to them during the Anniversary of the child's death or remember their Birthday. Therefore any mail for our Angel Families should be sent to our MACS Mailbox and will be forwarded, unopened, to the family's home address.

As for the other kids (Current Kids & Previous Kids)
Unfortunately, we are not setup to handle the sorting and forwarding of so much mail to several different kids spread around the country. Mail needs to be sent directly to each child individually. Read the question below for more information.

We ask that you visit the "Featured Kids" page, then select one child (or all three) and click on their photo to visit their MACS Page and read their story. Then just write down their mailing address (posted right next to their picture), and then mail them cards, letters, gifts, crafts, etc... Be creative!! (Read the Do's and Don't's information below first)

If you wish to send mail to more than 3 kids, then visit our Current Kids page for a list of all kids who have been featured in the past year.

For your convenience, you can also go directly to the Addresses page, and print out all mailing addresses, instead of having to write them down one by one.

You can also send mail to our Previous Kids kids, but those addresses are not posted on MACS. You need to visit each child's personal website to look for the address. Visit the Previous Kids page and mouse-over the question mark icon on the "Site/Address" column, for important  information and tips regarding the Previous Kids' mailing address.

SIBLINGS & PARENTS:
We also encourage people to send mail to the sick child's young siblings, who most of the time, feel left out due to the attention that the sick child gets. Once, a sibling of a Featured Kid said: "I wish I had Cancer too so I could get some mail!". How sad is that?

You're welcome to send mail to Mom & Dad too, especially during Mother's Day and Father's Day.

How many kids you pick is entirely up to you. You should first send mail to our Featured Kids. Then if you need more kids, the Current Kids lists kids who have been featured less than 1 year ago. And if you want even more kids, then visit our Previous Kids page, even though some of those kids are already living a normal, healthy, life.

As for which kids have received less mail. We do not know how much mail each child has received because all mail goes directly to the children, and we do not ask parents to report a daily or monthly count to us, but we can say that the current Featured Kids are the ones who have received less mail because they have been featured most recently. Kids who were featured many years ago, don't get much mail anymore, but.... they have already receive a lot of mail during the month that they were featured and throughout the years too.

Each child has a different illness and a different prognosis. While a child with an incurable illness could be doing very well right now, another child with a curable illness could be very sick.

Here are a few things that you can do:

1- Check out the Urgent Mail page where we list kids who have recently relapsed, will be undergoing surgery or had something major happen to their health. The Current Kids are also very ill, and the Previous Kids are a mix of stable kids (but still sick) and kids who are doing really well or have been cured.

2- Visit our Kid's Updates page where you can sign up to receive "Health Alerts" by email which means that you will be notified every time something serious happens to any of our kids (Current Kids and Previous Kids). You will also receive a longer "Health Update" every 3 months (on Current Kids only), so you can catch up to what's been happening with them.

3- You can also visit each child's personal website and look for an update/journal section to see if parents are posting any recent news.

DON'Ts
Please try not to say: "Get well soon", "Get better" or anything similar, as some kids have illnesses with no known cure and sadly will not get better.

Avoid adding Bible verses or any mention of religion as our kids have different beliefs.

Do not mail candy to the kids or anything edible, as some kids have various types of allergies.

Do not add confetti and glitter inside envelopes/packages. Though that's very cute, it's a HUGE mess to clean up once a child rip-opens an envelope/package and everything goes all over the place, especially if they are on a hospital bed.

Stuffed Animals - If you are mailing a USED Stuffed Animal Toy, and it has been sitting around your house for a long time, then please wash it first, as this toy could be a lethal dust-allergen-dander threat to some kids who have severe allergies. If it cannot be washed, then please do not send it. Purchase a new one instead.

Stuffed Animals (used OR new) should NOT be mailed to kids who are in hospital isolation and/or going through intense chemotherapy due to their very delicate & low immune system.

DOs
You can say: "Wishing you well", "Praying for you", "Thinking of you"...

Send cheery mail... you're supposed to "make a child smile", remember?? You can write something funny on your card, maybe a joke or something funny that happened to you.

Write about you and your family, send pictures of your family, pets, vacations, describing where you've been and what you did... tell stories! Kids LOVE stories!!

A card can be a LOT more than just the text that's already printed on there... and your signature. BE CREATIVE!!

Most people include their email address or postal address when sending cards/letters/gifts to our kids. If so, you might receive a card or email from the parents or even from the children. But please do not expect a reply. These families lead very busy lives with doctor's appointments, hospital visits, etc... Our MACS Kids receive a lot of mail, so it's hard (and may be costly) for parents to reply to everyone. If you receive a reply, please do not insist that they become your buddy or pen pal!

Please don't!! The purpose of MACS is to send REAL mail to the children featured. We know that in this day and age of technology, it's much cheaper and convenient to use a computer for everything... but imagine if YOU were in a hospital bed for several weeks or bedridden at home... Would you rather receive a BIG BOX full of cards, letters and gifts... or read a few emails and online greeting cards?

An online greeting card is cute, animated and plays music... but a REAL card or gift in the mail is much  more exciting for the kids because it's their own mail. This young generation was already born in the Internet Era, so they don't even know what REAL mail is!!

And REAL mail has that personal touch that email & e-cards don't have! Most people send personalized cards, decorated with stickers and other scrapbooking supplies. It also comes with their own handwriting and the envelope is sealed with a kiss!! Plus, the kids can keep and cherish their mail forever and someday, show it to their own kids and grandkids!!! Isn't that priceless? (this could be a MasterCard commercial! LOL!)

Now look how special THIS is!!! Isn't it?? Isn't it??

At this moment, we do not have any positions available for Volunteers, but you can help us immensely by sending mail to our kids and promoting MACS!!

Let everyone know that it won't cost them much to drop a card or little gift in the mail to brighten the day of a sick child!

You can also add our link to message boards, chat rooms, guestbooks, etc... asking people to come visit our website.

How about printing a Flyer? And do you have a website?
Then please read the following questions below...

Of course and please do!! You may also add our MACS Banner to your website, MySpace, Facebook, etc...

Please make note that "Make A Child Smile" is written with a CAPITAL A, not "Make a Child Smile" and it's not hyphenated as in " Make-A-Child-Smile".

Please remember NOT to refer to our children as "terminal" or "dying". Read the question "Are all the kids on this website dying/terminal?" above for more information..

Absolutely NOT! That is a copyright violation, unless you have our permission, which is usually only granted to other Organizations or Media websites.

Yes we do! You can print out the Kids Summary Page. Then post it at Schools, Churches, Offices, Businesses around your town, city or neighborhood. But you'll have to remember to go back there and change the flyer every time we add a new kid ok? Keep checking our website or sign up to receive the MACS Newsletter by email so you'll be notified once a new child is featured.

Yes, but as long as you have our permission! So please Contact Us and let us know what kind of fundraiser you plan on doing. Anyone fundraising without our permission will be prosecuted in the court of law. The ONLY type of fundraising that does not need our approval is if you use Mission Fish to sell items on eBay to benefit MACS. Click HERE for more information.

Unfortunately not. MACS is not setup to provide financial assistance to other Organizations or children not featured on our website. Even for kids featured on MACS, financial assistance is very limited due to our very limited budget. Our Organization's MAIN purpose is to tell stories of children battling serious illnesses, so that they can receive uplifting mail from those who visit our website.

No. MACS is solely a web based Organization with an office in Florida. We do not have any plans to expand to other States and/or Countries.

We do not have a link exchange program. We will gladly add links to other Organizations, on to our Links page, as long as they are related to children/illnesses (website still needs to be reviewed for acceptance). If your website is Commercial or does not fall into the category mentioned above, then please visit our Sponsors page.

First of all, check if posts are being sent to that List because we don't send them every day. Check each List's Archive (MACS Newsletter Archive & Kid's Updates Archive) and if you see posts that you did not receive by email, then you're really not receiving them.

If you're not receiving posts, there could be three reasons:

1- Our posts are not passing through your Spam/Junk filters that YOU have manually set.

2- Your email service (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc...) is AUTOMATICALLY blocking our posts thinking it's Spam/Junk (because they see that it's an email being sent to a lot of people)

3- Your subscription did not go through. If you didn't receive a "subscription confirmation email" from FeedBlitz after you subscribed, then it didn't go through.

Unfortunately, nowadays, legitimate Mailing Lists are often confused with Spam/Junk because they are being sent to a lot of people.

How to fix, or try to fix all three problems above:

1- If you can manually configure your Spam/Junk Filters, you should configure it to allow emails from FeedBlitz@mail.feedblitz.com.

2- You need to contact your email service tech support and ask them to stop blocking emails from FeedBlitz@mail.feedblitz.com.

3- Same fix for #2. Your email service is not even letting the "subscription confirmation email" from FeedBlitz reach you. You need to tell them to unblock emails from FeedBlitz@mail.feedblitz.com.

We apologize for the inconvenience, it's not a matter of us changing how we sent posts to our list subscribers, but how Spam/Junk filters and email services are mistakenly thinking that legitimate Mailing Lists are the same as Spam/Junk mail.

If nothing works, we suggest that you subscribe to our Lists from a different email address/service until you find one that works. Google email at www.gmail.com is the BEST service out there where legitimate email almost never goes into the Spam folder and Junk mail almost never goes into your Inbox.