I walked out to the showroom and saw four grown men working on an order with Ingrid.  All were working over their sweet tooth as well.  Yep, each one of these guys looked…well…they looked like kids in a candy store.  And, I guess that’s the whole idea anyway.

Who Are These Kids?

Ever go camping with the neighbors?  You’re not alone.  Last week we got a call from a lady that wanted some t-shirts for camping.  Well, we print a number of t-shirts for summer camps, but what was this camping thing?  Turns out a bunch of neighbors go camping together, and the moms kind of become the moms to all the kids.  Hilary would be proud.  I guess the running joke among the moms was “Who are all these kids and why are they calling me mom?”  They wanted a design that would fit in with the kids and the moms.  Judging by the finished artwork, the moms kick back a little too.  Bet it’s a fun neighborhood!

Shirt: Gildan Ladies Cut T-shirt  Shirt Color:  Candy Pink  Ink:  White

By the way, if you’d like to pick up one of our latest apparel catalogs, feel free to swing by Ad-America’s offices at 2215 29th St. SE, Suite B-7, Grand Rapids, MI anytime M-F 8:30AM – 5:30PM EST.

If you want to try your hand at designing your own t-shirts, check out our apparel design studio at Ad-America.com, then click on the “Design It Here” button on the left side.

You can upload art, add text, move it around.  When you’ve got something you like, click on the “Request A Quote” tab.  Fill in your name and email address and any questions, then send it to us.  We’ll get an email of your artwork and can fill you in on your options.  Try it out!  (…and tell a friend too!)

Now, years later, photography has advanced well in to the digital age and buying a good quality camera no longer requires the expense it once did. Not to mention, you don’t have to pay for developing film. Which means guys like me can carry a camera all the time and record whatever strikes us at the moment with no thought of cost.

I’m always on the lookout for design ideas, potential customers, interesting logos, or things that make me laugh. The other day I was heading over to Subway to grab a sandwich and as I headed towards the office door I passed my digital SLR camera sitting on the counter. Should I take it? Geez, the local Subway was just 2 minutes away. Why bother? Ah, what the heck. I grabbed the strap of the camera and headed out.

As I pulled in to the parking lot at the sandwich shop, I saw a pretty well worn van parked out front. I smiled when I saw this bumper sticker.

I thought, now that would make a great t-shirt! What about you? Have you got an idea for a t-shirt. If you’re in Grand Rapids, you should stop by the shop. If not, feel free to call or email Ad-America. It just might be less than you think to put a smile on someone else!

No problem.  I figured I’d swing by the tire store where I bought them, work on my ‘do-list’ while they worked on the tire, and catch up on a few favorite podcasts.
It wasn’t long before I had the legal pad filled with projects and a young man named Earl came in to the waiting room…”Kelly?”  “Yes, that’s me.”  “Sir, your vehicle is all set.  We pulled the screw out, plugged that hole, and then rotated your tires.  Your vehicle is running and ready to go.”

As I took the papers, he asked me, “Do you mind if I use my phone to take a picture of that paper taped to your dash?”

“Sure, go ahead,” I told him.  He dashed outside, ran around the front of our yellow Ad-America Xterra, leaned in over the driver seat and snapped his picture.  As I walked up to the truck, he said, “It turned out great!  Thank you!”

“Well, Earl” I said, “Good luck and good success!”  He smiled and we shook hands again.  As I climbed in to the truck to head back to the office, I looked down at that piece of paper to remind myself of what I needed to work on.

What message was so important a tire mechanic would want to capture it on his cell phone camera?

“The successful person has developed the habitof doing things failures don’t like to do.”

I suspect Earl will be branching out.

There are some pretty nice cyclonic vacuum units with a price tag to match to suck up all this mess.  You’ve probably seen huge cyclonic units on the outside of buildings.  They look like a big funnel with a chute at the bottom where the debris drops.

The way they work is amazingly simple.  There’s a tube at the top of the funnel hooked to a powerful vacuum.  So, this tube creates a vacuum inside the funnel.  There’s another tube connected at an angle to the side of the funnel near the top.  This tube is connected to the hose lines that are used to suck up the debris.  Are you following me?

What happens is this.  The top tube creates the vacuum in the funnel. The debris gets sucked up by the tube on the side of the funnel, near the top.  The debris gets sucked into the funnel and goes round and round, hence the name, ‘cyclone’ and ultimately the heavier particles, like wood shavings fall to the bottom of the funnel where they fall in to a waste bin.

The little plastic contraption I bought?  Well, it snaps on to a 5 gallon bucket, and my portable shop-vacuum to basically do the same thing for about $20.00

My question is this.  As the first quarter has closed, and all those resolutions are forgotten, do you sometimes feel like your life is getting sucked up with all the debris and minutiae  going round and round, until finally, it all settles in to a box.

Maybe now would be a good time to think about what you’re doing and why.  Seek out the joy we can all bring to each other in our jobs and try not to sweat the small.  After all, in the end, it’s all small stuff.

I’m referring to etched glassware. In addition to pint glasses and ashtrays, there are other items made of glass that are perfect for etching as well. A few years back, one of my cousins was getting married and for a gift I etched a glass cookie jar. Our artist prepared a nice rendering of the families last name in kind of an 1800s style, which fit perfectly with the families values. On the bottom of the jar, I etched the name of the couple and their wedding date.

The etching on the bottom of the jar was done in such a way so you would actually read the text through the empty cookie jar.

The etching is reversed and on the outside of the bottom of the cookie jar.

The completed jar was wrapped and presented with a note that read, “When you get to the bottom of the cookie jar, you’ll always have each other.” Do you need a kleenex? See, it really is the thought that counts…that…and the cookies!

What do you give the guy that already has everything? Last year my mom was battling cancer and things weren’t going so well for her. My parents live in a small town outside Columbus, Ohio, and I live in West Michigan. It’s a five to six hour drive each way.

A friend of mine is a corporate pilot. As luck would have it, his company was in the process of opening a new office in this same town. After a few emails with the president of the company, I was given permission to hop along on a flight that allowed me to visit my mother, and be back home in the same day. What a treat!

How do you say thank you for something that special! I learned from the pilot that the company president had invited a group of friends and business associates to a rather exclusive golf resort. They would be flying to this resort in the same plane I had just returned on. That information helped me with my thank you gift.

I realized there just might be adult beverages involved at some point on their trip. So, for my thank you gift for my trip to Ohio, I decided to give the company president eight scotch glasses that he in turn could give to his friends and associates while on their golf outing.

We etched the logo of the resort on the side of eight scotch glasses. One glass for each person going on the trip. On the bottom of each glass, we etched the tail number and nickname of this particular plane, the date of their trip, and the first and last name of every guy who was invited. Yes, there were eight names on the bottom of each glass! What a souvenir!

The glasses were then shrink wrapped and dropped off at the hangar where the plane is kept, along with a big thank you from me.

You can imagine what it would be like to be invited on such a golf trip, and then while sipping your scotch, you happen to look through the bottom of your glass and see all the details of this very special excursion! I’d love to show you how the etching turned out, because frankly, it does look very cool. But, I want to respect the privacy of the people on the trip, so you’ll just have to imagine this one!

If you want to run a promotion like this with your school, you’ll want to start with the school’s athletic office. Many states have rules governing the color of uniforms that are worn on game day. While a minor point, I haven’t heard of any state association refusing the request, you’ll want to check with the school just to be sure. Either you or the Athletic Director will most likely need to get approval from the Athletic Association that governs your school. In Michigan, it’s the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Once you’ve got the go ahead from the school and the coaching staff, and chosen a chairperson to run the event, it’s really just a matter of lining up what you want to do, and asking some parents if they’d be willing to help out. As far as publicity goes, that should be easy.   Radio, TV, and the local paper all like a good story, and they don’t get much better than this. Your event will no doubt make the evening news and land on the front page of your paper! Regardless of who wins the game, everybody wins as you raise funds for a worthy cause and help keep the focus on cancer awareness and education.

You’ll probably find that many of the kids on the football team have someone in their family, or know of a friend that has been affected by cancer, and they’ll get pretty fired up about the idea. One team can wear “pink jerseys”, either purchased, or you can dye white jerseys pink for this special game. The other team can wear their normal school colors, though you might have them sport a pink ribbon on their helmets.

In place of the players name on the back of the jersey, you could allow the jerseys to be sponsored with the name of someone who has battled cancer. Prior to the game, the field announcer could read off the players’ numbers, and the name of their sponsor. “…and number 76 on the Whitmore Tigers is playing for Mary Craddeck.”

The Cheer Squad will likely want to sport pink colors as well. They’re a little easier to outfit in pink! Promotional products to consider for the girls include pink sox, headbands, tops, shorts, and naturally real pink ribbons for their hair.
It always helps to have a name for the “Big Game”. Here are a few that have been used:
“Fill The Gym For A Cure”
“The Cancer Classic”
“Think Pink”
“Pink and Blue Classic” Breast/Prostate cancer awareness
“Football For A Cure”
At some point, you’ll want to determine who gets the money you raise. Organizations that are typically the recipient include the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the American Cancer Society, or perhaps the Cancer Institute at your local hospital. You can always split your proceeds as well.

Now that you’ve got the sports team dressed in pink, and your cheer squad all decked out, what about the fans? Some schools encourage fans to wear pink, but most opt to have a special t-shirt designed and printed just for the event. Yes, it’s usually a pink shirt! This also doubles as a fundraiser. If you allow folks in the community to buy the shirts ahead of time, you can always offer “Free Entry” to the game when they wear their shirt. Be sure to have more shirts available at the game for sale as well.

A natural place to consider selling your shirts pregame would be the school’s spirit store, a sporting goods or department store, that is, a business that normally sells clothing. Don’t rule out other venues that might not be as obvious, like a credit union or bank. As they say, that’s where the money is.

Sponsorships. Yes, you can consider sponsorships for all of these items individually, or have one large sponsor. Either way, you can add the sponsors logo to the back of your t-shirts, or incorporate their logo in to the design. You can also allow them to hang banners in the stadium or arena, and print flyers to promote the game.

This should be enough to get your mind working. Here’s a checklist of promotional items that can reinforce your event, provide a commemoration, and help raise money. You may not want, or choose to use all these items, but the list is here for your convenience. I’m sure you’ll want most of these in pink for breast cancer awareness, or perhaps blue for prostate awareness.

[ ] Pink Jerseys for the team members and coaching staff
[ ] Pink T-shirts for fans(really makes a statement when the stadium is full!)
[ ] Pink goal post pads. Or just add a big pink ribbon cut out of vinyl.
[ ] Pink ribbon at the 50-Yard line on the field
[ ] Rally towels. These can be pink, or white with a pink imprint
[ ] Pink caps
[ ] Pink water bottles
[ ] Snow cones! Yes, a popular concession item are pink snow cones.
[ ] Plastic cups imprinted for the game
[ ] Special helmet decal
[ ] Wristbands
[ ] Headbands
[ ] Pink basketball net (Obviously, this is for basketball promotions!)
[ ] Pink and white basketball
[ ] Special shorts and tops for the Cheer Squad
[ ] Pink ribbons for the girls on the female sports teams or cheer squad.

Other things that need to be taken care of:

[ ] School’s permission
[ ] Coaching staff and players buy-in on the idea
[ ] Athletic Association permission to wear pink uniforms
[ ] Contact the media…all of them! Radio, TV, newspaper, the school’s website, blogs, etc.
[ ] Get your promotional items designed and ordered
[ ] Line up sponsors
[ ] Decide on a charity
[ ] There will be plenty of other things that pop up. Be sure to get volunteers to assist you. They’ll be happy to help!

If you need help with your promotional items, t-shirt design, or have any other questions, you can call our office at 616-247-3797 or 1-800-266-8534 and ask for either Ingrid, Kyra, (Kee-rah), or Kelly.

Thank you for sharing this post with others, and your effort to fight cancer!

While reading the newspaper a while back, I couldn’t help but notice the number of articles on tragic accidents.  You know the ones, a kid on a bike gets hit by a car, a boating accident, a drowning, etc.   Evidently, all the promotion corporations do to promote safety at work must be having an impact because it’s rare you read about an industrial accident.  Certainly at-work accidents that warrant a newspaper article or firsthand report from a TV station seem to be few and scattered.

On the other hand, it seems what we do on the weekend, at home, our recreations seem to be where we get hurt the most.  In our local area, a man was trimming a tree when he dropped his chain saw on his wife.  Yes, she died.  Another man was badly burned when he doused brush with gasoline.  His young daughter who had run up behind him also received second degree burns over 50% of her body.

We first read about the accidents, and then over the next day or so, as more details come out, we may learn more about what caused them.  We rarely get to read about the aftermath.  The…”where are they now” type of article.  How are they dealing with insurance and medical bills?  Are they back at work?  How do you function at work after someone in your family has been badly injured or killed?  How would your company be impacted if one of your star employees suffered a tragic accident?

I was sharing my thoughts on this subject with a client when he nodded in agreement.  He went on to tell me about a salesman in his company who had had a record sales period.  After receiving his commission check, he went out and bought a small pool for the backyard.  While it was filling, he went to buy a fence.  In the meantime, his two year old son had managed to get in to the pool.  You know the ending.  My client said, “That guy was dead to the company for almost a year.”

Encouraging your employees to be safe at work makes good sense, and keeps your insurance costs down.  Encouraging your employees to be safe ‘at play’ may save you more.

Work Safe Play Safe!

Do you have a story to share?  Please omit company names.