An Upper St. Clair High School teen has enlisted the help of thousands of friendly Japanese monsters to bring smiles to the faces of those staring down real-life beasts like sickness, poverty and trauma.
In what began as a school capstone project, 16-year-old Vikrant Kamat has flipped Pokémon’s “Gotta catch ’em all” tagline on its head. His Happy Card Club has donated more than 10,000 trading cards featuring the Japanese anime fantasy creatures solely to bring smiles to the faces of kids at places like UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Wilkinsburg-based Foster Love Project, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and more.
“I figured I might as well have fun with it,” explained Kamat of rekindling his childhood love of the franchise for the project. “(Donating the cards) makes me feel really happy because I remember when I was a child and we’d go to Target for groceries and I’d ask my mom to get me a pack of Pokémon cards. Just the joy of — not even the value of the cards — but just opening them and feeling like I had a tangible product — I think that made me feel really happy. Now I’m passing on that joy.
“Most of these cards donated don’t really have sentimental value to the owner, but to a child who may be feeling down, that card could give them a little boost in the day.”
In between time spent studying, captaining his debate team and helping out his family while his mother deals with a health issue, Kamat has operated largely as a one-man show with advisory support from his parents and Upper St. Clair social studies teacher Dan Zelensky. He has diligently set about collecting donations via drives like the bin he has set up at Phantom Tattoo Studio, cold-email pitches to local card shops like CardCrate asking about unused bulk, and a bevy of individual donations from personal collections.
“It’s definitely been hard, but I feel like it’s taught me perseverance,” said Kamat. “We just started in the Pittsburgh area, but now that it’s branched out to Philadelphia, I feel like the limits are endless. I’d hope to donate to almost every hospital across the nation.”
Kamat takes time to repackage the cards in holographic bags and wraps them in stickered foil to maintain the feeling of ripping open a new pack, while also making sure to include a variety of cards that include a special find or two carefully placed inside protective sleeves.
Kelly Hughes, founder and director of the Foster Love Project — which serves about 4,000 kids moving through the foster care system a year — recently received a donation from Kamat to be placed in the nonprofit’s free “shopping” center.
While it contains myriad basic necessities, it also features new, brand-name items to bring the kids joy and ease their transitions.
“A lot of times when kids come in here, they’re in a bit of a shell shock,” explained Hughes. “They’ve just gone through an extremely traumatic situation where they had to be removed from everything that was familiar to them, and so when they come to our center for the first time, they often don’t know what to expect.”
Upon receiving Kamat’s pitch, she was immediately impressed.
Hughes said Kamat’s donation was the first from a teen with such an initiative.
“All the work that he went to to package them up and collect them and really be concerned about kids that might not have access to the same things that he does, it was very cool that he took this on his own initiative and tried to give back some good into the world,” Hughes said.
Hughes said she would be taking on more Pokémon cards from the Happy Card Club in the future. When Kamat’s cards hit the free store and a kid first observed them, she remembered, “The child’s face really lit up and that he was very excited to kind of have that fun item available to him in the midst of being in such a difficult circumstance,” said Hughes. “We know that when we get them goods, it doesn’t change their situation, but we hope that we can bring them a little bit of light and joy and that they recognize that they are not forgotten, they are not a number in a system.”
Currently, Kamat’s goals are to continue expanding Happy Card Club’s reach and scope while pursuing official 501(c)(3) status, as well as a relationship with the Ronald McDonald House.
This summer, he interned with state Rep. Natalie Mihalek’s office because he eventually wants a career in government.
“I think giving back is something I’d be interested in,” Kamat said. “In government, you sign laws, you advocate for what you think is right, and that has a direct impact on whether someone has a good day or not.”
For now, though, he’s just focused on making the biggest impact he can as a 16-year-old.
“Ideally, I’d like to go on for as long as possible,” said Kamat. “I feel like the joy of Pokémon cards really isn’t something that runs out.”