Recently, the American Red Cross ran a campaign called ‘Heroes’ to raise funds and awareness to support the vital work they do to help those in times of need. We helped the Northeast Wisconsin region with imprinted ceramic piggy banks used to recognize ‘Heroes’ who have contributed  to helping ‘make it happen’.

Steve and Barbara from the chapter stopped by to give us a beautiful framed version of an ad that featured a picture of our little piggy! Guenevere from our research team really drove the process and she’s the one holding the bank.

We’ve been a supporter of Kayak for a Cure from early days. It’s so exicting to see the event grow and now develop into a multi-site, multi-country mission to raise money for cancer research.  The ‘flagship’ Vancouver event was held yesterday and it was a huge success with more than $35k raised.

Now, the event is getting press – watch the video here.

I was in Indianapolis this weekend for the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF) Patient & Family Conference. AA&MDSIF is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting Bone Marrow Failure Diseases like Aplastic Anemia, MDS and PNH through patient support and research.

Given that this is a topic near and dear to my heart (full disclosure alert – I’m on the Board of Directors and our family has been personally touched by these diseases), I could go on and on about the event, the work the Foundation does, education on these little known diseases, etc.  However, given that I try to keep this blog broadly focused on marketing, promotional products and creative ideas I thought I’d share this photo:

The Foundation put together the first ever ‘Hope, Steps and a Cure’ walk as part of the event, to raise awareness and to show people how they can put a walk together in their hometown.  The team at the Foundation that put this whole event (and the walk specifically) together, did an oustanding job in every way and they paid attention to many, many details. One important detail was the use of color in the walk t-shirts and other promotional items/materials.

This photo doesn’t begin to do justice to how it really looked when a sea of 200 bright red t-shirts weaved their way around downtown Indy.  At times it literally looked like blood flowing through the veins of the city. It drew a ton of attention and the banner at the front of the walk (which I was helping to hold when I took this shot which explains why you can’t see it!) tied it all together.

When you’re tyring to get attention, don’t forget about color. Choosing a bright color and sticking to it consistently throughout an event makes a big impression.

One of the programs we’ve put in place that I’m the most proud of is one by one® .  The program offers one order of $500 in promotional products – each business day – to a worthwhile charitable/non-profit organization. These organizations are involved in some incredible and important work and the promotional items they select help them thank volunteers, spread the word, raise money or are put to use in other creative ways.  In the end, that $500 becomes something much more.

We’ve given products to hundreds of organizations over the past few years. We just revamped the one by one® website so you can read more about these organizations (there are some truly inspiring stories), see where they’re located and, if you’re involved with a non-profit, apply for a grant.

There are some wonderful things happening out there. For proof, just visit the one®  by one the site by clicking here. And if you know of a group that could use this kind of help, please spread the word.

Improving Life, Three-fold: Kitties, Neighbors and Cities
No More Homeless Pets KC

No More Homeless Pets – Kansas City volunteer Debra Sweeten talks with Kathy Rodriguez
at an outreach event, where the organization handed out imprinted koozies and pens.

marke