A part of my morning ritual is flipping through the newspaper in search of interesting stories. If the stories translate into creative ideas then all the better. Below are two stories I ran across. Individually they might not be all that interesting, but combined... I think they can be something of interest.
See what you think.
Story#1: Sweet victory: Girl Scout sets cookie-sale record.
The article tells of a 15 year old girl from Dearborn, Michigan who sold more girl scout cookies in a single season than anyone in the U.S. ever has. Her approach... set up Girl Scout Cookie shop in a church parking lot, Monday through Saturday between the hours of 3:00-7:00. Sundays she moved her location to an auto part store and extended her hours.
Story #2: More news play makes sense
This story tells of a 10-year old boy from Carleton, Michigan who collected his goal of 1 million pennies and then presented a check for $10, 000 to his catholic school
Again... individually, maybe not so interesting, but together they at least make you stop and go hmmmmm. Same Dallas Morning New newspaper, two different sections. Both articles reporting on resourceful children... IN MICHIGAN... who raised large sums of money.
There's got to be something here. ESPECIALLY in light of next week's kick off to Taste of USA: What's Your State Made Of.
For those of you new to the site... Taste of USA is an upcoming contest - showcasing the best of your state. The winning state will be named host site for the First Annual Highlowaha Brainstorming Summit. It is bound to be a fun-filled, high energy, community building, you-won't-want-to-miss-it event... complete with giveaways and all.
We are a blog of creative thinkers. So, put on your thinking caps and help me figure out how we can either capitalize or adapt this information to benefit highlowaha.com. Need some creative jarring? Dig into our Wednesday archives for a Whack on the Side of the Head. Literal "brownie" points for the first person who applies one of von Oech's principles.
Announcements:
- According to CSPgradstudent - who was appointed highlowaha.com bean counter, all but three states are accounted for. We need a mere three readers from the following sates: West Virginia, Montana, and Wyoming.
- The reader for whom we brainstormed ideas about moving from one office to another reported a successful event. She used some of our ideas by asking students to record favorite memories in a journal. She also distributed cards featuring a photo of the view from her office window. Cupcakes were had by all, her signature treat.
- CSPgradstudent also hosted the graduation celebration for which she was seeking our ideas. Maybe she'll post the outcome.
- Remember! Our goal is to have 100 educators post favorite student gifts they have received (or wish they would have received) THIS FRIDAY! It is not to late to help make this happen. Contact, parents, aunts, uncles, former teachers, coaches, neighbors, former classmates, etc... All we're asking is that they post one idea. Their name will go in a drawing for a box of school supplies for next year's classroom.
- Added incentive... if they mention your name... you also win a treat.
Signing off until tomorrow...
Posts
13 comments:
Close2it,
Are you out there?
I got your note. Thanks!
Just wondering...Where are you? How did you end up posting to Highlowaha? Are you in the DFW area? If you are I was thinking lunch with Claudia, Cheryl and myself. And, how did it go with the Flat Stanley projects.
Claudia,
I passed out info at school for your blog, hopefully you will get some posts but it is a bad time of the year since most all teachers in my area are wrapped up in wrapping up their year! You may have more luck with teacher's in areas who are in session until June. 6 days left for us!
L.R.
I'm going to apply Von Oech's principle of "Reversing It"...
Instead of thinking about how we as the highlowaha community can benefit from incorporating these ideas let's reverse our thought process.
Here's my reversal:
-Can we use our 6 degrees concept to engage at least one of the kids into the highlowaha community and see what THEY can offer us?
What I find most interesting is that AGAIN the girl scouts comes up on this website.
I'll work more on the brainstorming later ...I'd like to reserve the right to get those "brownie points" in July.
Just so that I'm not always the ice cream maven here is another free deal for our readers:
Today only from 10am-10pm get a free 16 oz iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts.
If anyone wants to read more about the Girl Scout who sold TONS of cookies, click check this out:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_fe_st/odd_cookie_super_seller
Also...I'll jump on the maven wagon! McDonald's is giving away free chicken sandwiches today from 10:30-7:00 with the purcahse of a medium or large drink.
Nice job, Heather. Ask not what the country can do for you...but, what you can do for your country. I'll be interested in seeing where you take it. Can we ask this enterprising Girl Scout to help establish my concept for a new badge? I love the idea of engaging one of them (specifically the girl scout) into our community. Why do girl scouts keep coming up? Maybe there's a message in their somewhere.
Julie Cole... if you're out there, I'd love to hear your thought on the subject!!!!! You too, Maureen.
As for the brownies, Heather... one batch coming your way... in July.
L.R. Thanks for the plug. Maybe tomorrow I will address issues of stress management... added incentive for teachers to "plug-in." Spread the word.
WARNING: SUPER LONG COMMENT AHEAD: And, I feel like I may be an antagonist today. And, since I feel like it's kind of got some negative tones to it... I feel like I need to say how much I love participating on highlowaha.com everyday! I feel like I'm building some very good relationships on here and I'm having a ton of fun, too.
Okay, so on to today. The girl was focused on selling Girl Scout Cookies. She committed a lot of time to doing so. Over 24 hours a week. That’s a part time job. How long did the boy take to collect a million pennies? How did he go about doing this? Did he ask everyone he saw to forfeit their pennies? The thing that they have in common is they are focused on one goal. Selling cookies and collecting pennies.
What is your focus at highlowaha.com? Is it to post creative ideas everyday? Is it to build a community of bloggers? Is it a combination of both? They seem to go hand in hand. You have committed to posting a new idea on your blog Mon-Sat.
For the activity of whacking you on the side of the head activity my focus is what is going to make highlowaha.com better than it already is. I'll start with what I feel like is negative and work my way to fun.
Beware of the unintended.
In an effort to build a larger blog community have you unintentionally stopped posting creative, crafty ideas and activities for the blog community to use for themselves and focused more on getting more people to participate?
Drop an assumption
What if we drop the assumption that you need to make the blogger community bigger and that you have to reach 10,000 hits and focus more on ideas and just having fun?
Reverse the idea.
Don’t focus on making the blog community bigger and achieving a certain amount of hits. Build it with content and they will come. We will share because there are awesome ideas to share.
Dig Deeper.
The question is how do we improve the highlowaha.com? Get more readers, have more fun, have more ideas, build a sense of community. Okay. How do we get more readers? Have more fun? Create better ideas? Build a bigger sense of community? I feel like I have ADD and can’t focus. I don’t have all the answers.
Combine ideas.
Posting creative ideas and Building a community. You’re going to post great, creative ideas, and everyone is going to invite more people to join in the fun. In building a bigger community, the community is going to inspire you with even more fun ideas.
Have something at stake.
You have losing your readership at stake. Is it me or has Anon dropped off the blog? We can put pressure on you to put that bathing suit on again.
Get rid of excuses.
We’re going to drop the excuse that it’s hard to come up with creative ideas 6 days out of the week. You’re a creative person and it’s easy. But, not only do you have yourself, you have a network of friends that you can draw upon. I believe that everyone has a creative talent whether it is writing, drawing, crafting, music, acting, organizing or something! Draw upon everyone you know to submit ideas. Steal them… I love that my friend, X, does Y. Even if the person doesn’t think they are creative they have ideas that others can draw upon, refine to our own taste and execute in our own style.
Imagine you’re the idea.
I’m the blog. I want to be fun and creative and colorful. I want to share information and make people laugh. I want others to play and participate in sharing. I want others to embrace me and my ideas and share them with their friends. I want others to participate in generating ideas for me.
Make a metaphor.
Comparing the blog to cooking… you’re the chef, we’re the clientele, sopping up all your ideas with our biscuits.
Comparing the blog to conducting an orchestra… you’re the conductor, what you write is the compilation of musicians, we’re the audience soaking it all in.
Comparing the blog to waging war… You’re the 5 star general, we’re your loyal followers ready to go to battle.
In any situation- you, Claudia, are the leader and we, the community, are your loyal followers ready to help and enjoy what you put out in the world for us.
Think like a kid.
What would I write about everyday if I was a kid? Make believe. I would write about funny jokes and things that happened. I would make up stories and make stuff out of paper. I would round all the chairs from the dining room table and drape a blanket over them to build a fort. I would invite all my friends to come play with me. We would create lots of fun new games to play or just pull out some old board games and go to battle. I would tell you about all my friends and how wonderful they are to play with. I might be brutally honest to the point I hurt your feelings.
Well, I don’t know about you but I feel completely whacked! Brownies are not necessary. I bought a scale last week and the thought that I may actually invite people over to my pool and they will see me in my bathing suit is motivating me to lose some about 10 pounds. But- I do want to do lunch with you, Cassie and Close2it! :)
Ok Claudia, being probably the oldest GS in the group and a leader I decided to go directly to my girls at tomorrows meeting and ask them. My troop consists of 25 girls from all backgrounds. The only things they have in common are their religion and school (and a love for community). As for cookies if you put a girl in a uniform and they have a nice attitude they can sell anything. Its all in the presentation. We had a girl here in NY last year that had her dad selling cookies on the corner. He got arrested for not having a vendor license. Well believe it or not a man in NYC bought 1000 boxes of cookies because he felt bad that she was so upset. Her troop got $5000 for his sale alone. If you pitch your story and present it in a "likeable" way you can sell the brooklyn bridge. I am asking my girls (who are professional badge earners) what they think should be in a badge relating to community involvement. I just called GS to find out the requirements for badges. I am awaiting a return call from the program liaison. I will email you as soon as I have collected the info.
Points well taken, Cheryl and a special kudos to you for recanting and applying each of our "whacks." That was a true test in creative thinking. I'll respect your request for NO brownies, in an effort to be supportive of your desire to shed some pounds. Let me go on the record for saying... the effort you put forth would certainly have earned you more than one pan
A touch of unnecessary rationale for all of you thinking..."Cheryl, you go girl..."
The desire to increase highlowaha readership is at its core, a desire to pull more people into the community. There is an underlying assumption on my part that the more people involved, the more creative ideas get shared, and the greater the value of the blog.
The other underlying assumption I make, albeit debatable, is that in order to build true community, readers must engage with one another - even work together. The "challenges" have been more about giving us common purpose and less about sheer numbers.
Dialing into highlowaha each day is also about getting to know me - the author of the venue through which your creative ideas get shared. For all of our Discover Your Strengths junkies.. My innate tendencies are: Strategic, Focused, Achiever, Ideation, and Input. Setting mini goals and systematically mobilizing readership is the ultimate storm for someone with my strengths and interests.
By default, however, it does mean there are a myriad of things the blog is NOT. It's not the funniest, the headiest, the most informative, or a million other things. It is a simple reflection of me and what I care about. Ultimately, I am passionate about fostering creativity and about building communities. In a world where we can often feel disconnected and where creativity is viewed as an anonomly, it seems like the blog has some relevance.
I count on readers like Cheryl to shed light on blind spots and to introduce me to a world of new possibilities. Thanks for the Whack!
Cheryl,
That is a whack!
My thought honesty can only make you and your friends sharper and smarter and maybe more fun
Oh I forgot...... as for the idea about "writing" I will fax you a copy of a writing badge that already exists so you can see what is already out there. Of course if you want to do another "writing " patch program it has to be different and more challenging.....
I ran away with the "community" thing and didn't remember the "writing" thing.
Also for all of you with the wonderful and fun ideas for my sons graduation party can you believe that he wants to keep it small and simple and just have a family BBQ? I cant win... but you guys are great I appreciate all your help.
My Spanx were too tight this morning. And, the undershirt and suit jacket I was wearing were both too restricting across my front and my back. I was able to remove those three items at lunch but my too cute Madden Girl shoes are still binding my one toe in a certain way that is making me slightly uncomfortable... feel my pain! If there's too much time left in the work day that may just find me naked at my desk! Ew! Scary thought.
I read some time ago that blogs are your front porch or the equivalent to hanging over the fence gossiping. But we’re not really gossiping and the fence or your front porch has now become open to the world to join in. That’s a pretty cool opportunity if you ask me. And, Claudia, you are doing a fine job of creating a community and spreading wonderful ideas for all of us to participate in. You say your blog is not the funniest… but it is FUN!
So the challenge to all the readership of highlowaha.com including myself is pull up the rocking chair on Claudia’s front porch, earch out those creative ideas that help you get through you your days and pass them on to Claudia to share with us all.
Hello highlowaha'ers! I posted in the comment section a few weeks ago about what I ended up doing for my graduation celebration for friends, but I'll post it again.
I decided to take a few of your ideas and pair it with my abilities and talents. What resulted from this was a slideshow (with music, of course) of pictures from the past four years in chronological order. I gathered all of my friends together in a room on campus during our finals week and we watched it all together! Then, we went out into the campus cafe and had a last lunch all together! It was a nice hour together and I know they all appreciated it- tears and all! Thanks for all your great ideas- it was a success!
-Katie
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