One of the most memorable and successful events we ever held happened seven years ago. We hired a photographer and, on a cold mid-November day, outside our office in our Northside neighborhood, we set up hot tea stations, a table with a couple of small chalk boards, and invited the neighborhood to stop and chat, write what they were thankful for and have their picture taken. There was no pandemic. No need for carefulness between people.
Later, after the photos were edited, we emailed each participant their photo. There is more to this story so after you see the pictures, maybe post your own photo keep reading because this event also reconnected Larry to his niece.
Why was this successful? Because it brought people together, without regard to all the ways we tend to classify people. This wasn’t any kind of tribe. It was the human race. The cold day was suddenly very warm and fuzzy as we all took a dive into connections and positivity.
Truthfully, we didn’t know very many of these people. By and large, they weren’t our clients, and they didn’t become our clients. But we did meet that day and this year, as has happened every year since, a couple of people will post their picture on Facebook around Thanksgiving and tag us in gratitude.
While we didn’t know them well, we do KNOW you. And we would like to hold a 2020 virtual version, because this year is particularly hard on most of us. Let’s do a Friendsgiving!
Let's do a virtual Friendsgiving!
- Grab a piece of paper and marker.
- Write what you are thankful for.
- Turn that camera on yourself. It is selfie time. Or family time. Or dog time. Whatever.
- Click on the button below and post the picture in the comments on our Facebook page link
- Not on Facebook? Well that is the only technology that we could figure out to make this work for the majority. Sorry.
Of course, included was the above picture of holding the board “Thankful 4 you!” from the same gratitude photo shoot.
Chrystal was sitting in a corporate training session when upon the huge screen up front pops our picture. To herself, she exclaimed, “I think that is my Uncle Larry!” After the talk was over, she excitedly ran down to talk to the presentor thinking he must know her uncle. He told her he just found it doing an internet search on gratitude and liked it. How is that for the long reach of a few hours once day exploring connection and thankfulness?
We hope you will be called to play our gratitude game. And to look back at the link as it grows and grows in numbers. Feel free to share it with others. We need to reflect on whatever goodness we can find this year. And we need to know we are not alone.