Wristband Tuesday

Posted by Gabe on October 7, 2009 under Kids are Heroes | 5 Comments to Read

We recently ordered a bunch of Kids Are Heroes wristbands for our heroes to give out on Kids Are Heroes Day.  I decided to use them in a little marketing campaign I call “Wrist Band Tuesday”. Each Tuesday I tweet a picture of them on Twitter and ask for retweets, promising that I will send one wristband to a “lucky winner” – one that I randomly select from the retweets.  I think it is a fun little contest and from the number of retweets we get I think other people think it’s fun too.

Well I am fessing up. Coming clean. Wiping the slate. You see this week this contest was fixed.  It wasn’t fixed in the beginning – everything was fine until @poulingail entered her name. “I hope she wins,” I thought.  Later I remembered the comment she wrote on a recent post. The post was indirectly in support of Alaina Podmorow who is trying to raise funds to come to Kids Are Heroes Day.  Some of the people raising the money were questioning the value of sending a kid “to a mall to get an award”.  In our eyes it’s much more than that. I asked people to comment stating their perceived value of the event in hopes of convincing others.  Here is what Gail posted:

“Kids Are Heroes inspires kids to dream dreams and offer a hand in some personal way. My class of 5 and 6 year olds likes to hear about all the heroes on this site and when schedules get in the way, I hear about it. “Mrs. Poulin, we didn’t do Kids Are Heroes today.” I think they like hearing about real kids who are real heroes. They like composing a class message using their own thoughts and words. And they really love the double thumbs up they get when the Shoutout has been sent off. Any one of these heroes who has worked to help others should be able to enjoy the thrill of meeting other heroes. They are a very special group of people and they continue to make a difference. What more are they actually capable of down the road?”

 The part I love is  “Mrs. Poulin, we didn’t do Kids Are Heroes today.” Just thinking about those kids who have sent shout-outs to our heroes almost every day since the school year has begun really warms my heart.  So guess who won the contest this week?  That’s right, Mrs. Poulin, kindergarten teacher.  And guess what else?  Each kid in her class is going to get one too. So sue me, yell at me, unfollow me, never retweet me again – I will take all the punishment but will still have a smile on my face  as I think of the looks on the kids’ faces when their new wristbands arrive.