Working From Home, Local Woman Creates Heartfelt Gifts

“(It’s) who I am,” said Kay Silk, when speaking of her home-based business. "I’m very proud of what I do, and how I do it.”

Gifts from the Heart, which Silk had originally considered naming “A Basket Case,” was started 15 years ago.

Silk says she was working at Raytheon when her husband died, and she needed the money to support her children.

"It just came into my head. ‘Gift baskets.’ I had never sent one, and I had never received one," said Silk. "I ended up leaving Raytheon making a good paycheck to do that….I had no clue as to how to (even get supplies). And now my supplies are nationwide.”

Silk personalizes each basket, and takes calls for any occasion.

“I like each basket to say something, and it does it by itself. I can’t take credit for it. It’s (something Higher)," she said. "I'd like to say that I come up with these great ideas, but I don’t. It’s a gift. It truly is a gift.”

“I think the uniqueness of what Kay does in her business is (that) she listens to what people say to her when they call,” said her assistant, Carla Duffy of Content Media Solutions. “Kay, in speaking with them, her perception and her creativity, in her skill to be able to put these baskets together, really tries to make it personalized.”

Silk is also an active member in Red Cross.

“When they call, she just goes,” said Duffy.

“I even have all my things packed up in a box,” said Silk. “So I can just go when they call. I’ve spent time at (the Katrina site). When I come home, my kids ask me about it and I don’t even talk about it. I get what I need down there.”

to learn more about Gifts From the Heart, log onto www.agiftfromtheheart.net/

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