LAKEWOOD, Ohio – A Lakewood-based nonprofit organization has been inundated with requests for its promise cards, and the founder is looking for volunteers to help it keep up with demand.

The organization needs help packaging and mailing out cards that are designed to encourage people to keep their promises to themselves and others and to accept responsibility for their actions.

Because I said I would, which began less than 18 months ago, has gotten extensive attention on social media, on television, and in newspapers and magazines. While the attention has increased awareness of the organization, it's also put pressure on the group's limited staff and volunteers. The group has only four staff members.

An upcoming mention Wednesday on the nationally syndicated Rachael Ray show is expected to increase demand even more.

"It's very simple," Alex Sheen said. "Anyone who can count to 10 and put some cards in an envelope can help us make a difference."

Sheen is founder of the nonprofit organization, which encourages people to make and keep promises to better themselves and humanity.

Sheen founded the organization in September 2012 to honor his father, Wei Min "Al" Sheen, who died from small-cell lung cancer. Sheen, while preparing his father's eulogy, realized that his dad, a pharmacist, never authored a book, met a president or did anything particularly newsworthy. However, he instilled in his family the virtue of keeping one's word.

"If he said he was going to do something, it would be done," Sheen said.

Sheen decided to honor his father by encouraging others to better humanity through the power of a promise. He printed and then began distributing "promise cards" at his dad's funeral. The cards carry a simple message at the bottom: "because I said I would." On the card above the printed message, a person writes a promise and gives it to someone else for safekeeping. Once the promise is fulfilled, the card is returned to the person who made the promise, who keeps it to remind them of what they accomplished.

Sheen said the organization intentionally lower cases the letters in its name to convey the message it is part of a promise, like, "I will stop smoking, because I said I would."

Sometimes the promises are small, such as losing five pounds. Other times, the promises are big, such as promising not to commit suicide, Sheen said.

"If it helps someone through their trials, we want to be there for them," Sheen said.

Sheen will send 10 cards free of charge anywhere in the world to anyone who asks. The group also sells larger quantities of cards for groups wanting to distribute them.

"We are currently distributing 70,000 cards per week," Sheen said. "I need someone to count these cards and help ship them."

Sheen and his nonprofit organization have requests for about 11,000 promise cards on hand they haven't been able to ship yet.

Public attention has been drawn to Sheen's efforts thanks to some high-profile cases with which his organization has been associated. One of those cases involved Matthew Cordle, who in September 2013 made a video confession about driving drunk. Cordle admitted to driving under the influence when he struck and killed a man in a Franklin County traffic crash. Cordle subsequently received a six-and-a-half year prison sentence. The video was produced by and posted on the website of because I said I would.

Cordle made the video and urged others to promise not to drink and drive after hearing about Sheen's nonprofit group and contacting them, Sheen said.

The website again is receiving attention because Garth Callaghan, of Virginia, recently has appeared on network TV shows, including the Today Show, in a Los Angeles Times article, and soon on syndicated daytime TV talk show "Rachael Ray."

Callaghan was diagnosed with cancer three times since November 2011. He doesn't know how long he will live, so he's in the process of writing 826 notes that could be given to his daughter, Emma, at a rate of one per school day after he's gone. Garth was inspired to make his promise of prewriting 826 napkin notes after reading a magazine article about because I said I would. He had been writing her notes since she was a young child. He decided to promise to write enough notes to ensure Emma receives one every day until she graduates from high school.

Callaghan mentioned the Lakewood-based organization during the recording of the Rachael Ray Show, which Sheen believes will further increase demand for the promise notes. The show with Callaghan is scheduled to air in Cleveland at 11 a.m. Wednesday on WKYC-TV.

Sheen's organization also has received extensive attention on social media sites, including Reddit.

Sheen asks that anyone interested in donating time to help the Lakewood-based nonprofit send out promise cards register online at the organization's website. The organization also maintains a Facebook page.

It operates an office at 15518 Detroit Ave., where volunteers help prepare promise notes for shipment.

Sheen, at the time he founded the nonprofit agency, was part of the management team at Westlake-based Hyland Software. However, in May 2013, he quit his job to head up the nonprofit organization, he said. He now travels the country speaking before organizations and at schools and colleges about his experience with his father and the importance of keeping promises.