Yesterday I came across the following tweet delivered by John:

How to create Facebook covers for your nonprofit (template included) aweber.com/t/IsLJ8

— John Haydon (@johnhaydon) December 30, 2011

Now always being the last to upgrade my stuff, I hadn’t even adopted the new timeline in Facebook yet. But after having read his post, I felt I had better do it quick and also offer some covers of our own. The post discusses not only making covers for one’s own page, but offering a variety of them to fans so they can display them proudly and help us get our message out. This is a great way to promote our organization in a really fun way.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

Now word has it that these covers are not supposed to be too “pushy” as far as selling anything goes or even asking for donations. And according to Facebook’s terms and conditions you cannot sell this space to anyone. I can understand the latter part but find it kind of odd that what you put on your ‘personal’ cover is anyone else’s business. However we are up to this challenge to create covers that are attractive yet as John says, “lightly branded”.

So we were off to the races yesterday. Our “so far” list of covers that are free for all to use is here on our website. If you know us well enough you will know that Michelle Maritz, an amazing artist from South Africa, has been helping us design posters and calendar pages. I took the graphic from her January calendar and made a cover out of it. I can’t wait till she and her daughter Margot send me some more original covers. Their works are so whimsical and wonderful.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

So we would love it if you let us know what you think of our new covers. And if you use one of them let us know about it in the comments and we will “brag” about you on Facebook and Twitter. You can even vent about what you think of the new Timeline feature. Like everyone else I really get annoyed with Facebook when it consistently gives us sweeping changes like these. But this new Timeline feature is growing on me. I just hope they keep it around for more than a month.

Not actual size. Get original from kidsareheroes.org/fbcovers

The Grand Ballroom at the Richmond Convention Center

Last Thursday we headed to Richmond for the #DSRPT11 conference as we were invited to speak to a group of 500 business entrepreneurs. The hash tag represents “disruptive thinking” as all the speakers and especially the headliner, Sir Richard Branson, have a reputation of thinking outside the box. As we arrived at the Richmond Convention Center we were a bit taken aback by the size and grandeur of the room. Two giant screens were hung adjacent to the stage and one other larger one above it. When we arrived our slides were on all screens which made it a bit surreal. This was really going to happen. Our speech coach told us that we should see the venue beforehand, learn every aspect of our entrance and get the feel for the whole thing so we knew what to expect. I can’t tell you how important this was to us. We both got miked up and went through the entire presentation to an empty audience. This was critical for us to get through the next day.

We delivered our speech on Friday after lunch. MaryMargaret showed no sign of nerves throughout the entire day until she realized we were on next. “Now I’m nervous!” she said. But she never showed it. I on the other hand had very little sleep the night before and was almost hyperventilating that morning. It wasn’t so much because of nervousness about speaking in front of people, it was more about the fact that the material was so important to me and I wanted to deliver it the right way.  I really didn’t want to mess it up. But when I arrived at the venue I saw how relaxed everyone was and interested in the content of the other speakers. This made me realize that we were really in the right place at the right time.

So then it was our turn. I still had a bit of the jitters but MaryMargaret was flawless. I didn’t really realize that until I watched it back later. We had a bit of a gaffe in the middle which turned out to be funny. I’m not sure if people thought we scripted that or not. I think the biggest surprise we received was the crowd’s reactions. Both the speech and the video we presented sparked several rounds of applause during, and MaryMargaret got a rousing standing ovation at the end. I also heard later that a few tears were shed, including some by my wife who was working the Flip video camera. The results of her efforts are seen below.

So after having completed the speech it was time to finally breathe out and enjoy the rest of the day. Many of you know that I credit Sir Richard Branson when I talk about the genesis of Kids Are Heroes. MaryMargaret is the flame but Sir Richard was at least a big part of the spark. We watched his presentation which included a fascinating look at the upcoming adventures of Virgin Galactic, which is the company he formed to take “ordinary” people into space. Thanks to the WONDERFUL folks at Richmond Unite, the company that hosted this entire event, we did get the opportunity to meet him, not once but twice. We did a “meet and greet” that night and were also invited to a brunch with him the next morning. I finally got to give him the acknowledgment I’ve always wanted to about how his words helped us start the organization. Talk about a surreal experience.

Hero Ethan from VA on left, Sir Richard and MaryMargaret

So I really must thank the folks from Richmond Unite for offering this opportunity to us, as we hope it acts as the launching pad for similar future events. I must also mention again our speech coach Mike Boyd, who helped us gain the confidence we needed and also improved our delivery tenfold.

Don’t get me wrong, if you look at our press box you will see we have indeed seen a lot of chatter about us in the past 3 years, and we are very grateful for it. What has eluded us for the most part is national and even regional attention.

Recently I was contacted by a producer at ABC. She found us via Google (Yay Google!) and wanted 10-12 year-olds who give back for a town-hall type TV show hosted by Diane Sawyer. The show was to honor Nelson Mandela. She wanted kids who were making a difference on a global scale. Finally we had something that matched us perfectly. We have been turned down for grants because we don’t focus exclusively on our local community. The catch was these kids had to be close to New York City. I offered to pay our way to NYC as I felt MaryMargaret would have been a great candidate. (For those of you who are unaware, MaryMargaret is the founder of Kids Are Heroes.) I sent them other great kids too, some older than 12. The odd thing was that this producer came back to me saying they only wanted the older kids and were not interested in MaryMargaret. I have to admit I was disappointed but happy at least to be offering that opportunity to the older kids. I heard a few weeks later that the producer had told them the higher-ups had changed their minds again and wanted 10-12 year-olds, yet she never came back to me. One thing I’ve learned is that if you are in the publicity game, you must have a thick skin. What it boils down to for those who can give it to you, is nothing more than ratings and money. They look at what we are offering as a commodity, not something that can potentially change the world. The quicker we can come to terms with that, the better off we will be.

And then there is the voting phenomenon. After MaryMargaret won the Discovery Girls Role Model contest (thanks to many of you) I swore I’d never go through that again. It was humiliating to ask for votes and now there are so many contests out there that it is becoming more obnoxious than anything else. So what did I do? I entered her in the Energizer Bunny Hall of Fame contest. Now in my own defense, as I understood it they would pick the top 100, (which did include MaryMargaret) then they would choose the top 10. The winner would be selected from the top 10 via a voting process. However, those in the top 10 would win $1000 for their favorite charity. So on merit alone, MaryMargaret could win the donation which we sorely need. Now comes the rub: The Bunny decided that they would open up the voting so that the “fan favorite” could be one of the top 10 and the other nine would be selected by their committee. So I got sucked in again asking for votes. Thanks to you (again) MaryMargaret did well with well over 250 votes, but sadly it wasn’t enough. I even stopped asking for votes when it became clear that some of these others had many more Facebook fans than we did. So we move on. And who knows, we will know on April 4th if she was chosen to be in the top ten.

And let’s not forget our “Celebrity Roundup” session we completed a few months ago. We sent personal letters to no less than 153 people I deemed as celebrities that I respected and could have given us a big boost if they promoted us. We only received a handful back that could not be found at that address so I know I hit my mark in most circumstances. A few people were very polite, (i.e. the assistants of Carlos Santana, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, etc.) and turned us down in a personal and respectful way. For the most part, however, we received no response at all. I am not necessarily blaming them, I guess it was more of a learning process for us to see if that would be an effective tool. Apparently it wasn’t.

Sometimes I say to myself that I should just keep our nose to the grindstone and do what we do every day — promote what these kids are doing via social media and let the publicity come naturally. This is honestly what I would prefer to do but sometimes admittedly I get sidetracked. Do you remember the old cartoons of a dog who tiptoes as he sniffs a cloud of smoke, his nose fluttering, and follows it to a ham or a turkey? That’s sort of what happens to me when the “smell” of publicity gets near me. I cannot control myself.

So why am I hounding publicity? Do I want to be famous? Do I want MaryMargaret to be famous? I will state undeniably and  unequivocally: No and NO! As a matter of fact the second to last thing I want is for me to be famous and the absolute last thing I want is for MaryMargaret to be famous. Although I have no interest in her, Fame can be a very seductive lady, yet she is also extremely destructive. She can chew you up and spit you out, tied in a knot just like a cherry stem. I value my privacy and the thought of  not being able to be left alone while in public absolutely turns my stomach. So Fame is not my thing. What we look for on an every day basis is elevated awareness for Kids Are Heroes. That is why we work so hard in social media. We just want other people to know about what these kids are doing. We want to share the incredible feelings we have when we listen to them and witness when they get together. We want to share with others the wondrous results that we get when these kids get involved in giving back. It plainly and simply enriches their lives and turns them into leaders. That is what we’re all about.

Some of you may have seen the tweet recently about our new Kids Are Heroes theme song. This was written and produced by one of our talented ambassadors, Chip Richter. One of the reasons he created it is because we have a local production company that is trying to develop a documentary series about us. As a matter of fact, the pitch reel should be ready any day now. The idea is that the producers will go to Halogen TV, Nickelodeon and others to see if they are interested in a series that highlights our children. I do hope it works as I can guarantee one thing it will deliver: inspiration. Stay tuned for developments on this.

So in the end have I sworn off those voting contests? In my mind I loathe them, but I never say never.

Anyway, when I was a child (in the 3rd grade) growing up in the suburbs of Montreal, Quebec, I would come home for lunch each day to enjoy some quality time with my mom. I’ll never forgot the wonder of getting a new TV that was actually in color. It seemed as if the whole room even smelled differently. We would watch Hollywood Squares followed by Jeopardy and then I was back off to school.

I have very fond memories of those times. Not sure why a third grader would like those shows, but I sure did. Now enter the reason why I’m mentioning it. We recently launched our Donor Walls, where anyone can buy a square for a small donation and get publicly thanked in return with a link back to their website. It is a fun way for folks to get involved with KAH and get promoted to more than 30,000 Twitter followers and Facebook fans for a very small donation. The Hollywood Squares show would have a “secret square” where if you chose it and got the answer right you would win extra prizes.

We decided we would incorporate the same thing. Behind one of the squares in our Foundation Wall is a secret square where, if you have purchased it, you will win special prizes. Once all the squares are filled we will film MaryMargaret drawing a square out of a hat and whoever has purchased that square will be the winner. Since we have some time before all that happens, we are also soliciting for donations to add to the list of prizes. Maggie, one of our heroes, has generously donated one of her bracelets (worth $25) to the cause. We will also add KAH wristbands, a piggy bank and a T-shirt. This will be great PR for whoever donates goods to the square as well as for folks buying squares on our wall. We are going to keep a running list of items on this blog post which will mean that this post will be featured prominently and many times over.

So think of something that can be easily shipped to anyone, anywhere and is something truly of value. And we thank those who have generously purchased a square. Let us know if someone found you through our wall. Contact us here if you would like to donate something.

Current Items in the Secret Square

KAH Wristbands (Two adult Two Child) ($8 value)
KAH Tshirt ($23.95 Value)
KAH Piggy Bank ($3 value)
Necklace by Maggie at Twice Loved ($25 value)

Also…

So when I saw this new idea (at least new to me) I said to myself, “I have to get that for our site!”. I stumbled across something I thought was called the Support Wall. Since I heard about that someone else told me about the new Promo Wall. The basic idea is that people buy squares on the wall for a relatively little amount of money. They can be in denominations of $25, $10 or even $5. What makes it interesting is that for that little amount they get to purchase real estate on that wall that can be used to promote their business or non-profit. The square can be hyperlinked to their web site, Twitter or Facebook account, or wherever they want it to go. They can even have a message that pops up when the mouse hovers over the image. So I couldn’t wait to sign up. The problem was that these sites weren’t going to be ready for a month or so. I loved the idea so much I built our own on the Kids Are Heroes site. We call it our Foundation Wall. People can buy three different kinds of “bricks”. 100x100px spaces are $25, 50×50 are $10 and 25×25 are just $5. Check it out in all of its glory here.

Why I feel so strongly about why this would be beneficial to us is because we are giving true value for their tiny investments. Between Facebook and Twitter we can invite more than 30,000 people to go to this page as often as we want to. We have our own traffic to send to it. It’s actually fun to see who is up on the wall and why they bought a square. We often think that $5 is so little so why won’t people donate it? The reason is because it’s too much trouble and normally you get nothing in return. Everyone’s asking for just a small donation. But If I can give $5 for a plug and a link back to my site while helping a charity on a page that will get lots of traffic, why wouldn’t I do that?

So I am encouraged by our first square purchased right away and a promise of another.  (As this was being written another $25. square was also gobbled up.) It remains to be seen how successful it will be, but on paper it should be amazing. It encourages people to buy early as if they do they will be on the wall for a longer period of time. Our wall has a capacity of raising $2500 for us and when it gets filled we simply start another. There is virtually no cost to us yet the squares offer real value to our donors.

So, in the indomitable words of Peter Marshall, pick a square!!

Update 3/03/11: Well the Foundation Wall got off to a GREAT start. We sold 5 big squares last night and the reviews were very positive. This gave me another idea. Why not build a second wall for corporations? The bricks would be a bit more expensive but they would be up longer as this wall won’t get populated as fast. And at $100 for the most expensive square it’s still very reasonable. So the corporate wall is up and we have already sold 2 $100 squares!! Looks like we might be on to something…

Please help MaryMargaret, the Founder of Kids Are Heroes.

A Twitter colleague, @DabneyPorte, sent me a link just yesterday. It is a new (at least to me) website strictly for non-profits. It’s called JustCoz and it is a “tweet donating” service. The address is justcoz.org. The concept is that non-profits register themselves and then ask their Twitter followers to donate one tweet per day. Once the charity supporters have granted permission through the site, the non-profit can broadcast through JustCoz and the tweet will go directly into every supporter’s Twitter stream. This can happen at most once every 24 hours.

Here’s how it works. You pick a charity, let’s say for example Kids Are Heroes. You simply go to our page at justcoz.org/kidsareheroes and click on the button that says “Donate a Tweet a day“. It will validate you through your Twitter profile and you are done. You can opt out at any time, but if you support us we would be extremely grateful. To further explain, if you sign up for this, JustCoz will send one tweet created by me in your Twitter stream once a day.  I cannot do this more than once every 24 hours. To opt out, go to http://justcoz.org/kidsareheroes and click on Stop Supporting, or Revoke Access to JustCoz altogether in your Twitter connections. I want to be clear on this as a few people didn’t understand exactly what was going on once they signed up for it. This should clarify things.

As it turned out I had seen this floating around Twitter before it was suggested to me, but as usual I am a late adopter and I never “get” things when they first come out. That’s why I’m glad I have Dabney at my side. As of this writing we already have more than a dozen supporters (we just signed up last night) and with our big event coming up in May this will help us create a great buzz about it.

So if you are on Twitter we would humbly ask that you donate a tweet so the smile can be restored on MaryMargaret, the founder of Kids Are Heroes as pictured above. As a matter of fact, you can see in the Comments below that she hates this picture and would rather have a different one posted.  I told her I would do that when we reach 1000 people donating a tweet a day. (Update: We are now over 200 but we still have a ways to go!) The rest is up to you!

UPDATE 03/16/11: To thank everyone who has joined this effort, we offer a free square on our JustCoz Donor Wall. If you have signed up to donate a tweet a day, visit this link to get your square. Thanks!!

The Kids Are Heroes radio show airs weekly on WBTN AM in Bennington, Vermont from 8AM-9AMEST. It does have a Listen Live feature so that virtually everyone can listen to it as it airs. The two guests for our 1/22 broadcast are heroes Daniel Dietz and Shannon McNamara. Hope you all can have coffee with us as we offer some truly inspiring conversations. Here is the link to listen to the show.

Help Us Tip it Over!

You may have heard me speak about our cart. It is something we continue to fill up with the hopes that it will tip over soon. When it tips over, that means that Kids Are Heroes will go viral and we will be able to affect millions of families instead of just hundreds and maybe thousands. This is one of our most important goals. Here are some things that are in our cart right now:

• MaryMargaret was featured as a role model by Discovery Girls Magazine for their 10th anniversary issue which will be out in June.
• Just completed a letter writing campaign to 153 celebrities in hopes of having one or two of them take up our cause.
• Local production company just finished filming two of our heroes so they can shop an ongoing documentary to various TV networks.
• Scheduled an upcoming video conferencing session which will provide a venue for 7 heroes and one kindergarten teacher to talk about Kids Are Heroes to various classrooms around the US and Canada. (This will happen on February 2.)
• MaryMargaret will be featured in new online magazine called “Luella Girl” in February 2011.
• We are promoting our availability for speaking engagements and radio interviews both in person and remotely. Our first radio interview of 2011 will air on WBTN-AM radio in Vermont on January 8.

Update 01/08/11: Due to the success of the interview on WBTN, we were asked to co-host the Recognition Radio show every Saturday morning through the end of March! This is a HUGE thing to add to our cart. To listen to our premiere episode, and stay tuned each week, visit our Radio Page.

We have recently been told of a periodical geared towards producers of TV and radio shows. It is a magazine that provides great stories and people to interview. We feel that this is a very efficient way of telling radio and TV producers about us. We are looking to raise $1800 to place three half-page ads in this magazine in early 2011. This could do wonders for our cart and who knows, in the end might be just enough to tip it over. (To donate to this cause, please click here.)

A Call to Action

When I was doing research on some of the celebrities we wanted to target I came across an interview with Don Shula, former coach of the Miami Dolphins. He said, “When you have a charity you can only do so much on your own. In order to survive you have to have support.” Truer words have not been said. If you believe in what we are doing, I am asking for your support right now. The radio interview mentioned above goes into details about some of the things we are working on that require support from you and others just like you.

Please help us tip the cart over by getting more radio and TV interviews. If you cannot support us financially, become an ambassador and help us with fund raising and awareness. This organization gives back exponentially as every single day I am inspired by what these kids are doing. One of our ambassadors recently told me, “You have six-year-olds that have already done more than some adults have in their lifetime.” These kids are inspiring children from all over the world to get involved. By getting the word out to more (and more, and more) families, we all can have a great impact and feel wonderful doing it.

In 2002 while just entering the NFL Levar founded a non-profit organization called “Fisher of Men”, which provide resources and opportunities for youth inspiring good decision-making and boosting self confidence. Levar is currently embarking on his brand new ”Believe Again 2010″ tour that will have him traveling the country speaking to kids of all ages.  In addition to his usual message he will be telling stories of the kids on the Kids Are Heroes web site and what they have accomplished.  This fits right in with his confidence building speech.  He will be telling kids all over the country that they too can affect change by emulating the children on our site.  I am so excited about this relationship as this is the kind of boost we need.  But I wouldn’t enter in an arrangement like this just because someone wanted me to.  For me the final test before we sealed this partnership was that Levar had to sincerely believe in what we are doing.  During one of our conversations as he was recounting some of the heroes’ stories back to me I could tell he was full of excitement and anticipation.  I sat back and listened as all of a sudden paused and said, “This can change the world!”  That’s when I knew this partnership would work.

When I first watched a tape of Levar speaking, I immediately sought out our local Toastmasters club as he made me realize how much improvement I need to gain as an accomplished speaker.  For forty minutes he was fluid and eloquent, with no need for notes of any kind.  And when I heard the speech he gave to a large group of kids I was even more excited. He engaged them and they hung on his every word.  They laughed and giggled at his jokes.  He is intelligent, funny and very pleasant to listen to.  He was able to keep their undying attention for the entire time.

If you are an educator I would highly suggest calling Levar and having him speak at your school or kids’ group.  He can be reached through his web site.  I look forward to witnessing the fruit that is borne from this relationship, and I just can’t wait to see what happens next!

Wow. What a great question. It’s not as if I haven’t thought about it, it’s just that noone has ever asked me that question before.  I know that when you write things down more ideas come flowing out, so I decided to write a blog post about it.

Kids Are Heroes began in March of 2008, so we are just finishing up our second year.  During that time we have featured close to 100 kids, had two Kids Are Heroes Days and been on Virgin Atlantic planes for one month, thanks to Sir Richard Branson.  We have also created our first major project where we plan to involve kids from all over.  I am happy with our progress, especially since we have become involved with social media.  But at the moment we are still very small with big plans.

It is hard to develop exact timetables, especially when I know that there are so many unknowns.  A lot of what we do will depend on what kind of financial help we can get.  We are lucky to have a few business partners who support us but I would sure love to get a bunch more. :)  Having said that plans are meant to be flexible, so let me at least speak to what we would like to do.

• Drill our first well with the help of kids out there who don’t have their own project.  We still want to encourage kids to follow their own passions, but also want to offer an alternative.  This will be done through Project KAH2O.
• Develop other projects so kids can select among them.
• Secure our 501c3 status.
• Finish our business plan (will it ever be finished?).
• Provide funding for more kids to attend Kids Are Heroes Day in October.
• Feature at least 150 more kids.
• Start to provide web site development to help jump-start kids’ projects.
• Develop materials that can be sent to schools. This will include a video (already produced) explaining what we do at Kids Are Heroes along with added resources.
• Achieve mentions in several national media outlets.
• Start to travel the country to spead the word.

We have felt from the beginning that Kids Are Heroes is something that works in every community and hope it will eventually become a household word.  Just the other night my 11-year-old daughter MaryMargaret received an email from a 12-year-old girl named Lily. She is just getting started in her project to “help the world in its desperate struggle to stop the pollution and clean up our mess.”  She noted that MaryMargaret “had some experience” and could she “give me some advice”.  This is another role we really hope to develop — to help nurture kids’ ideas and help them maintain their focus so they can follow through with their projects. You bet we are following up with Lily and watching her progress.

So, I welcome the next year and hope we can indeed accomplish many of those things.  One thing I am sure of, we will certainly be writing about it along the way!