Bunkers in Baghdad: Making a Difference One Golf Ball at a Time

Sports make a difference in so many ways! It is always a treat to learn of an organization that is making a huge difference with a simple idea! This week I'm fresh off a conversation with Joseph Hanna, Founder and President of Bunkers in Baghdad ("Bunkers") and what a difference he is making in the lives of our troops and veterans. Founded just a year and half ago, the organization provides donations of golf balls and clubs to military in the US and abroad. To date, they have provided equipment to soldiers and veterans in 9 countries and all 50 states. “We are approaching 1 million balls and 30,000 clubs distributed thanks to the help of sports teams, individuals and sponsors like Callaway,” said Hanna. Hanna has found a friend in professional sports, kicking off his efforts with the Chicago Blackhawks. Bunkers in Baghdad has been featured at various professional games, with funds raised in a raffle ticket effort shared between the team foundation and Bunkers. All proceeds go to pay for the expenses incurred from transporting the equipment overseas. Thanks to donations from individuals and sponsors, Bunkers was able to keep shipping to wounded warrior and veterans programs across the country. A few of the US Military Installations, Wounded Warrior Programs and VA Hospitals that have received donations include: John D. Dingell VA Medical Center - Wounded Warrior Program (Detroit, Michigan) VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System - Wounded Warrior Battalion (Ann Arbor, Michigan) Fort Sill Warrior Transition Unit (Fort Sill, Oklahoma) Manchester VA Medical Center (Manchester, New Hampshire) Tennessee Valley Healthcare System Wounded Warrior Project (Tennessee) Dover Air Force Base Youth Program (Dover, Delaware) St. Louis VA Medical Center - Jefferson Barracks Division (St. Louis, Missouri) Fort Rucker U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command (Alabama) Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center Wounded Warrior Program (Saginaw, Michigan) Omaha VA Medical Center Wounded Warrior Program (Omaha, Nebraska) Indianapolis VA Medical Center Wounded Warrior Program (Indianapolis, Indiana) Ft. Polk US Army Wounded Warrior Program (Ft. Polk, Louisiana) Naval Air Station Brunswick MWRF (Brunswick, Maine) VA Pittsburgh Heath Care System Wounded Warrior Program (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Warrior Transition Command Boston VA Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts) Fort McCoy Morale, Welfare and Recreation (Fort McCoy, Wisconsin) Wounded Warrior Program- VA Connecticut - Newington Campus (Newington, Connecticut) VA Medical and Regional Center (Fargo, North Dakota) Wounded Warrior Transition Unit (Vermont) Des Moines VA Medical Clinic- Wounded Warrior Program (Des Moines, Iowa) Wounded Warrior Transition Unit (Rhode Island) Bunkers In Baghdad seeks donations of cash and equipment, and is looking to form strategic alliances with sports teams and golf companies around the country. Contact Joseph Hanna at jhanna@goldbergsegalla.com or 716-566-5447 (also feel free to follow Bunkers on Twitter (bunkerstweets), join the LinkedIn Group or Facebook Page as well). For more information, please visit Bunker's website: http://www.bunkersinbaghdad.com/. (Also posted on The Real Athlete Blog.)

Politics - Be Informed! JUST VOTE!

Across the country, we will have elections tomorrow. As in any election season, there are candidates to review and issues to understand. It is easy to become an informed voter if you utilize various sources of information.

Understanding credible sources, asking questions, not assuming all facts are true are the hallmarks of learning in campaign season. I've dragged our family to meet the candidate sessions, poured over direct mail and pointed out information in our local newspaper. I've encouraged my neighbors to be informed and vote. I do hope that my fellow citizens will believe that our great country requires our active engagement, understanding various sides of issues, and most importantly voting our conscience!

It may not be a Presidential Election, but it is important... Just VOTE!

Changing the View - Using Social Media for Real Results

I always enjoy the opportunity to speak to college and graduate students. In particular, I challenge myself to get them to view the world in a slightly different way. This morning was one of those opportunities. The Brown School at Washington University invited me to speak to their course Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities course.

My part was to discuss the impact of technology and social media on the non-profit. While all were users of social media, most had not made the leap to understand the benefit of using in a work situation. We discussed the need for strategy, how real time knowledge can be gleaned from the internet in general and Twitter in particular, how real organizations are incorporating digital into the ways they engage their stakeholders, even showed some examples of funds raised using these tools.

Understanding of the tools requires a foundation of knowledge and a measurable objective. Helping today's graduate student understand how they make the transition from personal social media user to savvy employee who leverages social media is the challenge! I hope that my presentation helped to change their view of social media from incredibly personal to one of strategic opportunity!

The Death of the Pageview - ReadWriteStart

This article gives a good overview of measurement... engagement and behavior change are the key in a new digital age.

The Death of the Pageview - ReadWriteStart

Civics Lessons are Everywhere!

The world is a great civics classroom. Certainly the big elections provide wonderful ways to educate our children about the participatory role of citizens in our democracy, but so too do smaller elections that affect our communities.

This spring our school district has a bond issue to fund expansion plans for our district that sold off a lot of property in the late 70s and early 80s when the enrollment trends were decreasing. Instead of leasing the land and keeping it, they opted to sell to increase the reserves. For years, the district never had to go to the voters for more resources. But in the past few years, our district has had to go to the voters.

This spring:

• Our children have accompanied us to a Town Hall meeting in the building at Westminster Christian Academy which our district is seeking to purchase to use for our students. They watched the presentation, the well-worded, thoughtful question and the ones that seemed to ramble; they watched a decidedly skeptical population of mostly older citizens question the merits of a tax increase (albeit approximately $114 per year on a home valued at $500K) and they watched the public officials answer the questions.
• Our children have seen us put out a yard sign to support the proposition but take it down due to our subdivision indentures, and discuss at the dinner table some of the neighbors views.
• Our children have heard us discuss an email sent by me to encourage our neighbors to educate themselves on the ballot issue, and heard about some of the responses: positive and negative.
• Our children have gone to a Meet the Candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voter's to hear about the issues, and our 10 year old wrote a question that was asked of the 5 candidates for School Board - "Would you consider starting school after Labor Day?"

It has been a remarkably low key election, but one that they can understand and easily participate in... Civic Lessons are Everywhere, you just have to look!

Considerations for developing a social media policy: PRSA

PRSA has a thoughtful article on pointers to think about when developing a social media policy. In AHC seminars, we utilize a number of case studies, but thought this article was worth posting.

Considerations for developing a social media policy: PRSA

Trend Video - JESS3

My colleagues at JESS3 have put together a great summary of the stats related to internet and social media usage.

Check it out.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.