Gratitude
Posted by Gabe on July 14, 2011 under Kids are Heroes | 
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Bless me internet for I have sinned. It has been more than two months since my last blog post…
I have no excuse as to why this happened, but I have always been of the mind that if I’m not inspired to write I just don’t do it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Today I was inspired to write a post not because of anything in particular that happened today, but more because of a collection of events. As you might guess it is a challenging ordeal to start and promote a non-profit, especially in this economy. It is like a roller coaster where sometimes you think you’ve made it through and other times you wonder how soon the doors must close. Lately things have taken a rather large upward swing and it is the result of the support from a LOT of people. Without this support we would be nowhere. So I am now inspired to offer gratitude towards those who have been active in our recent successes. So without further ado, and in no particular order…
Gratitude to @JeffPulver for starting the JustCoz application. This has been a WONDERFUL source of outreach for us since we signed up. People can pledge to donate one tweet per day. I am offered the opportunity to tweet through our pledges’ Twitter streams once every 24 hours. This has grown from nothing to 765 pledges with a collective reach of 785K+. Every once in a while people don’t read what they signed up for and are startled to see that someone else tweeted through their stream. In those cases I am very quick to respond and tell them how to stop it. But most of the folks are happy to do it and I am also grateful to them. On more than one occasion the JustCoz tentacles have spread out to people that may never have discovered us, and our new-found friends are so moved that they have contacted me by phone. It’s a fantastic service! To learn more visit http://justcoz.org/kidsareheroes.
Gratitude must be sent out to our Outreach Leaders. This is a program we started recently that seeks volunteers to help raise awareness for Kids Are Heroes in local communities. Dawn Ranieri (@KAHPhilly), Bob Prankard (@KAHNiagara), Heather Lawson (@KAHFalkvilleAL) and Mariah McMillian (@KAHMobileAL) have all shouldered the task of spreading the word of Kids Are Heroes in their communities. We have several more that are applying and could even have one coming soon from Pakistan! To learn more about this program, visit here.
Gratitude goes to our Giving Wall Donors!! As you know it is extremely difficult to raise charitable dollars for a small non-profit in this economy. For us it has been no different. Thankfully we recently implemented our Donor Wall system, where people can buy “bricks” on virtual “walls” that serve two purposes. It helps us gain some of the much needed funding and also promotes the donors in return. Once purchased, a brick will include a picture or logo, a short description when the mouse hovers over the image, and a link to the donor’s website. Certain “premium” bricks have the ability to link to the donor’s web site AND Twitter pages. Companies and individuals alike have been strongly supporting us on several different walls: Our Foundation Wall (the original), our Corporate Wall, our Blogger Wall and most recently our Kids Are Heroes Day Wall which helps us fund that event. Please check these walls out and support the companies and individuals who are represented there. (Oh and it won’t kill you to buy a brick while you’re at it!!
Gratitude towards Jerry Pearlman (@TaleofaBaseball) for taking me up on our Social Media Makeover program. We helped him get his blog started and gave him a few other pointers and in return he bought two bricks on our Kids Are Heroes Day wall. If your kids want to read a really cool story about baseball, look him up and check out his book!
Gratitude goes to all of our Facebook and Twitter colleagues. We get lots of comments and likes on our Facebook page and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the mentions on Twitter. We feel honored, blessed and are truly grateful for this outpouring of support. And we are excited to see our growth continue at a phenomenal rate.
Gratitude to all 214 heroes featured on our site who hail from 5 countries!! We are about to add a 215th hero and a 6th country (hopefully) as soon as the consent form makes it in the mail from Thailand!! The energy I gain from these children is unparalleled. I am incredibly motivated every morning to get up and start all over again as I discover more kids who do amazing things and interact with both the kids on our site and their parents. It truly makes the world I live in a hopeful one. You can check these heroes out here.
Gratitude to all the folks who have blogged about our organization since our inception. We keep a running list in our press box and at last count there were almost 80 posts about us that we know of. That is such a benefit to us as awareness about what we are doing is key.
Gratitude to artist and Twitter friend Chip Richter (@Music4Kids) who wrote our theme song. Also must send a shout-out to The Oakdale Owls for performing a wonderful rendition of it. And we can’t forget Conrad Weaver of @ConjoStudios for doing a wonderful job on the filming and editing. See for yourself:
Gratitude to Adrienne Lawrence (@ADLawrence) who is not only a Twitter friend but also a reporter four our local paper. (The Frederick News-Post also deserves a shout-out!!) She is always kind and receptive to listening to what we would like to “pitch” to her. She of course doesn’t print everything we send her way, but has been very good to us in helping get the word out to our local community.
Gratitude to our production company NorthStar Entertainment. Check out the video John and Terri created for us. They are in the process of shopping us to different networks in hopes of landing a documentary series. Wish us luck!!
Gratitude goes to my family. This goes without saying but sometimes it should be said. My lovely daughter MaryMargaret, who founded Kids Are Heroes, was just featured as a role model in an international magazine for tween girls. She is my hero as she keeps me grounded every day. The world is truly her oyster. My wife Michelle has been a stalwart supporter of what we are doing since the day we started. She won’t tolerate any sense of negativity and offers a sense of style I will never own to put the touch of class on everything we do.
I’m sure I have more people to thank and when I think of them I’ll add them to this post. What are you thankful for?
