I needed something to get people to actually come over, though. I wasn't selling any kind of product or food, so I needed a way to get more attention.
I was actually prepared for this on my mission. We got to spend a day running a booth at the Borderfest. We were in kind of a terrible location, and no one really wanted to go talk to the missionaries when there was a parade and carnival rides and a food court and dancers and so many other interesting things going on. But we figured out a strategy: every time a family came by I'd dart forward and offer some candy to the kids. While the kids were choosing a piece of candy, that'd give the other sister missionaries a few seconds to say 'Hi' to the parents and at least give them a pass-along card-- and we even managed to get some referrals that way. (In fact, one of the people I taught who later got baptized we found because of this event)
I had what I thought was a pretty great idea to do something similar at the Summerfest: I came up with some DIY instrument projects that kids could come do for free. (A kazoo made out of a toilet paper roll, a popsicle stick harmonica, and some simple shakers made out of paper cups) That would draw over a few families, and I could talk to the parents about my business while they were waiting for their kids to make crafts.
First, though, I had some preparations to do.
One thing I needed-- manpower. I needed people who could help out with the crafts while I talked to people. I was able to recruit my parents and my younger brother, but I didn't want to make any one person's burden too great so I decided to see if I could find anyone in my ward who would help in exchange for a free t-shirt and some baked goods. Sure enough, two wonderful ladies agreed to help in exchange for my best cranberry-orange-chocolate chip cookies. (Seriously, this recipe is amazing, all of you reading this should regret the fact that you weren't there just so that you could get some cookies, they are well worth spending a couple of hours messing around with small children and rubber bands).
I also needed the craft supplies. Mostly I was able to get what I needed at the Dollar Store and a couple of other craft stores. The only issue was toilet paper rolls-- I had thirty or so left over from a craft project that I never actually completed, and started actively collecting whatever my family used (and even what was used at the residence I did those graveyard shifts at, since I knew I'd be doing this before I even gave my two weeks notice). But it wasn't enough.
So I went to the Facebook page for my parent's ward to ask if people could save their toilet paper rolls for me. And boy howdy did they deliver.
In the end, we had roughly 200 toilet paper rolls and 8 paper towel rolls. Sometimes, people are just awesome.
Next problem: Shade. We'd be spending an awfully long time out in the sunshine, and I figured without some kind of shade we'd be miserable. My family has a big screen tent that we use when we go camping-- it's a nice place to sit down where you get more of a breeze than inside the regular tent but you're protected from bugs-- that I thought would suit. But when Dad and I measured it, we figured out it was too big for my allotted space of 10' by 10'. We also tried looking at a big shade umbrella, though it was in need of repairs.
What we ended up using was a shade tent that technically belongs to the Cub Scouts in my parents' ward-- but that has some broken bars so nobody actually wants it, they just are having my parents store it instead of throwing it away. My dad managed to macguyver some repairs using twine and a piece of rebar so that we could use it. I put together some signs, and with some camping tables we had what seemed like a pretty reasonable set-up.
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| Mignon, my Mom's dog, being much less helpful than she thinks she's being |
The t-shirts (which I got cheap by ordering them 20 of them from a bulk clothing store online) arrived three days before the event, so I checked that they were all in order then got ready to fire up the printer to print my transfer sheets.
My parents have a laser printer.
Let me say that again. My parents have a laser printer.
Do you know what happens if you run inkjet transfer paper through a laser printer? Basically the result is a broken, sticky mess of a printer and definitely no t-shirts.
I hadn't realized that we had a laser printer so I'd gotten the wrong type of transfer paper at the store. No big, I'd just get them exchanged. Except, when I called the store, they said they didn't have that product. Neither did any of three other stores I called. I called a print shop to ask if they could just print the things on their inkjet printer-- except, they only had laser printers too. "These days, any commercial place you go will only have laser printers," the kind woman on the phone explained, "Because inkjets are going by the wayside."
As a matter of fact, the only transfer paper I could find that for sure even existed that would work on a laser printer was from this pokey little company in Illinois that would sell me fifty sheets for $70 (plus shipping) which would arrive roughly two weeks after the event was over.
In the end, I just bought a new printer.
Seriously, that was the most cost effective option I could find.
So, having survived all of that, the next day I started printing. Everything printed just fine, looked lovely.
Until I started ironing the sheets onto the shirts.
It turns out the instructions were not entirely accurate, and I ended up ironing for much longer than was actually necessary. The result? My logos were yellow-brown and faded and looked terrible. I didn't realize what I was doing until I'd made twelve of my twenty shirts completely unusable.
So I trekked back to the store and got another pack of transfer sheets, a new ink cartridge (printing those twenty shirts was enough to wear out the little one that came installed), and six new t-shirts. This time around, I was able to make a clean job of it and the t-shirts came out beautifully. But all in all, it actually would have been cheaper if I'd just had the t-shirts printed by somebody else in the first place.
But, finally, the big day arrived.
We had a pretty decent location-- in between an Italian pastry shop, a book/craft booth, and across the way from a woman selling crystal healing for pets. (That poor lady with the crystals got maybe three people total visiting her booth the entire day, and her face just got sadder and sadder.)
We might have been the busiest of the lot.
Tons of kids came through our tent. I did the math after and we made something like 250 instruments. I ended up keeping all of my helpers for much longer than I had initially asked them to stay, because often we needed as many as three people helping out with the instruments.
Many of the parents I spoke to were completely uninterested, or liked what I was doing but didn't have any further interest than that. Certainly no one was signing up for the newsletter, chance for a free t-shirt shirt notwithstanding. (As a matter of fact, every person who signed up "won" a free shirt, but it one person actually came back to get it. I've still got a box of the t shirts I worked so hard to get ready in time) But there were a few people who said they would give my pamphlet to a friend or co-worker, or that their child could perhaps benefit.
One woman asked if I was offering any summer camp programs. I wasn't, but after she left my Mom told me that maybe something like that might be a good idea. I thought about it, and started bringing up a summer social skills group with the parents I talked to--and I got a fantastic response. Six or seven parents said they'd be interested in something like that for their kids, and signed up for the newsletter so they could get more information. So, I decided. I was going to offer a social skills group in August-- I figured that was the soonest I could possibly do something like that.
Over the course of the day I also met the owner of a daycare for adults with severe disabilities, who expressed some enthusiastic about what I was doing and asked me to call and set up an appointment to chat with him. So that was incredibly exciting.
Mostly I spent the day glued to my booth, but I did take a short break to look at the vintage car show. (You know how much I love getting a chance to look at vintage cars)
At the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted. We all were, though for the last two hours it was just my Dad and I. (My Dad was invaluable for this entire event: I couldn't have pulled it off without him. He did most of the set up and a lot of the take down, he helped out with instruments for most of the day, he even brought back dinner) I hadn't thought anyone would come by any later than 8pm but it was closer to 9:30 that things had wound down enough to consider closing up. We packed everything up into the minivan, then I took off toward home on my bike-- I'd ridden my bike there in the morning because I'd had work at the thrift store first.
I turned on my color changing wheel lights be I headed out into the dark. With my colorful glow, biking past the fireworks and the brightly lit carnival rides, I couldn't help but feel like I was part of the celebration.
Sadly, none of the people who had expressed interest in private therapy ever got back to me. Some of the people who claimed they were in in the social security groups never bothered to open the newsletter I sent out. Still, I was hopeful that the daycare facility Is called with would be a great opportunity. And I was still determined to move forward with that social skills group--clearly there was a need for one in my community, to be receiving so much interested, and it's something that I thought would bring in people who weren't sure they could afford the more expensive rate of individual therapy. So, although I wasn't getting any obvious return for my investment in the Summerfest, I hoped to long term the event would get my name out there and start some new programs that I could run.
On an unrelated note, who wants a free t-shirt?
Um, I do! Everybody else in the family has one!
ReplyDeleteThat's true! Remind me next time you visit, I'll let you pick one out.
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