Picking Up Steam, Only 47 States and 147 Countries Left

So The Theodores had a good weekend. I sent out two Teddy Packages in the United States and both of the individuals receiving them sent them out the facebook page to a bunch of their contacts. I had been sitting at 99 likes and watching closely to see if I could get over 100 likes on facebook. I jumped to 130 or so over the weekend. The power of social media is pretty cool. I finally started getting people who were not friends or family to like the project. It means a lot because it shows that people really identifying with the mission of The Theodores.

Secondly, one of the first Teddy Packages I shipped abroad also did a clean-up and posted to my site. Now I have two countries that have a documented teddy clean-up. Only 194 left. As my Swedish Father-In-Law would say, “No Problems.”

The pictures below are from a clean-up that Project Schone Schie did in the Netherlands. He has a very similar project to me and is encouraging individuals to get out and do what they can to alleviate the garbage problem. I am excited to see how our projects will expand over the coming years. You can tell many people really identify with the mission and it makes me excited to do the work.

Also, I hope to start generating a list of friends that I know are abroad right now. I have Linton in Columbia, Randy and Juri in Chile, my Brother-In-Law in Sweden (who already has a flag) and Kristian, Kevin in China, Ahsan in Saudi. and Humberto and Beba in Guatemala and that is just off the top of my head. Lots more if I really sat down to think. I think if I start mailing flags to these friends I can start ticking off a few more countries.

Lastly, I need to start charging for flags and shirts. It takes quite a bit of time and resources to make them and this will make the project more sustainable. I was thinking of charging 10 bucks to ship a flag to where ever in the world. I also want to keep track and after 10 have been sold, I would like send out 10 free flags. These would go to schools, organizations, groups in less fortunate countries with instructions on to complete a Teddy Clean-up or project. I also think it would be neat if I could find digital cameras to include in the package so the groups can document their clean-ups. I have an old camera that was a Christmas present from my parents. I am not sure what this would completely look like but I think it is a good idea and I have friends in various parts of the world that could help to pull something like this off.