All the News That’s Fit to Print

Posted by Gabe on March 21, 2010 under Kids are Heroes | Be the First to Comment

Since we don’t have a newsletter (yet) I have used this blog as a platform to deliver it.  Well these seems to be so much going on right now that I thought I would devote a post to talk about all the recent events and connections that have affected us.

Let’s start with the BIG news.  Just this past week, after two years and 115 heroes, we have recognized our first hero from overseas.  Little 6-year-old Jackson, who comes from London, England, raised 1200 Euros for Haiti by organizing a bike ride.  Why this is SO significant is because it realizes our goal of becoming an international organization — a goal we laid out some two years ago.  (We even have the video to prove it.  At the end the news anchor talks about it.)  Once we get the proper funds we will need to translate our site into as many foreign languages as we can.  And what better of an ambassador could we ask for than Jackson – such an endearing boy!

Oh and then there’s the BIG news.  Just this past Friday we reached an agreement with our SECOND ex-NFL star, Ray McElroy, who is now a professional speaker and Chaplain for the Chicago Bears.  He will be joining Levar Fisher, who played for the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints, as they both tour the country speaking about Kids Are Heroes.  I look for great things to come from both those partnerships.

I am also proud to announce our partnership with Charity Choice, a company that provides charity gift cards.  This concept is new (at least to me) where instead of giving gift cards to be redeemed for material goods, the receiver can select which charities the monies are to benefit.  Kids Are Heroes has its own category where the person who receives the card can distribute the funds from the gift among charities supported by our heroes as well as ourselves.  We are very excited to be a part of this, especially since the gift card company is owned by a non-profit called “Special Kids Fund”.  This just means that all the funds go to a good place.

Our new Kids Are Heroes Ambassadors Program is up and running and starting off very successfully I might add.  We came up with a way to help us grow by involving our biggest fans from social media.  We provide a community devoted to spread the word about what these kids are doing, and by joining that community people are part of something big and wonderful.  They also have the ability of networking within that community so it is a win-win situation all around.

April 10th marks our second “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” where we host an event at Boyd’s Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA.  We have 89 people registered who will come and stuff bears, write letters and draw pictures for the kids who will end up receiving them.  All bears will be donated to the Children’s Hospital in Washington DC or John’s Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.  The Disney program has ended as it was so successful, but we are in discussions with the folks at Boyd’s Bears to see if there is a way we can keep this activity going somehow.  I really look forward to seeing how that plays out.

We have forged a relationship with Dreams for Kids, a large non-profit that focuses on special needs and at-risk kids by empowering them to be active in their community.  We are lucky enough to have been selected to be part of their “10 Campaign” coming up in October which will allow people to send a text message that will trigger a $10. donation to Kids Are Heroes.  We hope this turns out to be a huge windfall for us so we can get serious about taking our organization to the next level.  You will be hearing much more about this campaign as it develops.

We just broke the 20,000 follower barrier on Twitter. I rarely if ever talk about our numbers because in many ways numbers on Twitter can be of little significance.  But we never have nor never will pay for followers nor do we sign up for those free “Get More Followers” programs that are out there.  Breaking this barrier is a symbol to me of how hard we have worked in social media during the 15 months we have been active in it.  Without social media, none of the above paragraphs could have been written.

We just launched our new sponsorship program.  After all, we have a lot of work in our vision to carry out.  Like anything else, it doesn’t get done for free.  We are proud and excited to announce that the Ruby Books and the Photo Book Department of Jostens were the first two to award us with a Bronze sponsorship.  We really appreciate their generosity.

…And that was just last week. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

UPDATE: 03/25/10 Well some really cool things just happened so I figured I would add them to the list:

Yesterday we got a letter from the IRS. Normally I wouldn’t be happy about that, but yesterday was an exception as the letter was to tell us our 501(c)(3) application to become a tax-exempt organization had been processed and accepted.  So now we are an official charity.  That’s a big milestone for us.

And speaking of milestones, two years ago we set out to become an international organization.  That officially happened when we featured the aforementioned Jackson.  Now on Jackson’s heels we have two international ambassadors who will be helping to lift our visibility in England and Ireland.  Things just keep getting better.