Fairhaven’s ‘Teddy Bears for Kids’ is a project that provides handmade teddy bears for kids who are hospitalized or homeless at Christmas. The project does double duty as a charitable community service project, a marketing tool for the Fairhaven Learning Project, and a revenue stream for the sew-crafters who get a stipend for sewing the stuffed toys.
We started the project in September on Kickstarter with a 30 day deadline and $4500 funding goal. The project started the day before the hurricane hit us dead on, so the Kickstarter team allowed us to extend the deadline for two weeks (that really was nice of them!), until October 20, 2017. When we reached the deadline, we had collected $350 in pledges from 8 backers…short of the goal so we weren’t funded. Live and learn.
This was our first project on Kickstarter. Right after we started the project, the emails started from people who wanted to help us market our project. “For a fee,” we were told, “we can put your project in front of thousands of fans. You are guaranteed success.” This same marketing strategy is obvious on Facebook as well, where you can pay a fee to “Boost your Posts” and “Promote your Website”, and Twitter, and Instagram and Pinterest…so much for the free Internet, the vast “equal access” World Wide Web. Information that you want to get out to the world “reaches” a half dozen people. But if you are careless enough to air your dirty laundry on FB, the whole world sees it. Live and learn.
It seems as though even the best intentions, the things that are supposed to support the common good, are subverted to consumerism. If you can think of a good community service project, someone else will try to sell you a new technology to help you succeed. The problem is, software technology is just the delivery truck. We’ve become a society of delivery truck salesmen. Salesmen have to say what the customer wants to hear, or else they aren’t going to sell their product. Whether their words are true or not no longer seems to be an issue. We are steeped in misinformation.
Oh, it’s true we do hear a lot about charities and community service. There are universities and schools that have community service components in the curriculum. But these are mostly “give a man a fish” projects. Students give their time and emotional support to help someone less fortunate. These efforts are safe for two reasons. First, you can’t fault someone for doing good deeds. Second, “give” projects don’t cause change. They’re great for preserving the status quo.
What we don’t hear about is “teach a man to fish”, the “teach” projects that could really improve our physical and emotional health. Like teaching someone how to run their own Teddy Bear or errand service business, small scale neighborhood businesses putting money back into the local economy. The “teach” projects that do surface occasionally seem to disappear quickly…you know, like FB posts.
Have a look around, see if you can see these two patterns in your own experiences – good ideas that turn us into consumers and “teach a man to fish” ideas that go up in smoke…poof! And just FYI, we relaunched the Teddy Bear Project, with revisions. Check it out. It should go better this time. Live and learn.
Cheers,
Gus