We look pretty fancy in our new shirts! If you see us, say hi!
Maybe you saw Mandi’s recent posts about giving back to the community. She came up with the idea to raise money for a local charity, Feeders of the Lambs, which feeds the school-age children in Cameron, Texas, during the summers, when there are no school lunches. The poverty rate in this area is very high, and for many children, lunch is their only nutritious meal of the day, so these folks do some good work!
As a former employee of a nonprofit organization, I know how important donations are, so I pitched in and helped as much as I could, mostly by publicizing like crazy and buying cookie dough. When Saturday came, I put on my new Hermit Haus shirt and dragged my house guest over to the office, and we all got to work. We put up a Bake Sale sign over the “Sue Ann Buys Houses” sign in front of the building and waited.
How about That Publicity?
We used the biggest letters we could, but probably needed balloons or something. Live and learn.
We had one visitor right as we opened, a nice woman that our friend Melanie at the Chamber of Commerce sent over. Then there was a lull. We realized that all that Facebook, radio, and other publicity had NOT sent droves of citizens of Cameron over to us. So, Mandi and I took to the streets. With a sign in hand, we tag teamed and waved at every car that drove by. I made sure to smile, so by the end of the sale, my smiling muscles hurt.
THAT worked. Good old-fashioned in-person effort is what got us our customers! Even Lee got out there and waved for a while. People who saw our Facebook posts and blogs did ASK about the sale, but none of them showed up. I am pondering the meaning of that. Mostly it means that our efforts to talk about our work with people we meet are NOT wasted.
Hermann says please like and share!