GENEVA — The thick paper of a Christmas card sends holiday wishes from friend to friend, a stamped greeting of love to the ones you know.

In Geneva, Christmas cards don’t just connect dear friends; they help introduce them.

Loyal Community Christmas Card (CCC) donors were invited to a cookies and punch reception Thursday afternoon at UH-Geneva Medical Center, where friends hugged and chatted and remembered their first donation to Geneva’s annual holiday hospital fundraiser.

“I appreciate the Community Christmas Card because the end result is a reward,” longtime supporter Pat Vensel said. “I appreciate seeing people work toward the same goal, especially in the busy Christmas season.”

Instead of sending individual Christmas cards, the community is encouraged to make donations in any amount to CCC. The donors’ names are published in a two-page greeting printed in the Christmas Eve Star Beacon. It saves the time, effort and money it takes to send individual Christmas cards, and the money benefits the hospital, which is able to purchase otherwise unaffordable medical equipment.

Deadline for contributions is Dec. 17.

Contributions to CCC are allocated only for the purchase of the specific piece of life-saving equipment suggested by Dr. Amitabh Goel and the medical staff.

This year, the money will purchase an state-of-the-art telemetry system, a remote wireless heart monitoring system. Because of the conversion to digital signals in early 2009, the medical center’s old telemetry system won’t work. Funds also will be earmarked for a noninvasive hemoglobin monitor to help accurately measure and continually monitor hemoglobin levels, which eliminates the need for repeated blood draws.

Pat Merrell was one of the original committee members who founded the Geneva CCC in 1970. She said she is proud of how the idea has grown.

“We tried it that first year, and it went well, and then it grew every year after that,” Merrell said. “I never would have dreamed the card would become so big and that the fundraising ideas would be so imaginative.”

Since the project’s inception in 1970, Geneva-area community donations to CCC have helped purchase nearly $220,000 in equipment for the hospital.

The committee is preparing for the Community Christmas Card’s Holiday Home Tour 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 7.

Tracy and Ron Clutter, Elias and Naomi Nunez, and Nancy and Chuck Wright, as well as Kay Herdman’s Warner-Concord Farms Bed and Breakfast Inn, will open their homes to visitors for tours of the uniquely decorated interiors.

Tickets for Christmas Holiday Home Tour are $15 each and are available at Catherine’s Christmas, Central Hardware and Primitive Gatherings or by contacting CCC committee members. Tickets also will be available at UH-Geneva Medical Center from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on the day of the tour. Tickets include details about the tour and a map of homes on the tour.

Donations may be mailed or given to any committee member or given at Geneva-area banks, or send donations to any committee member.