Picking up balloons at Dollar Tree

My dear friend and fellow spreader of joy Dana Layon-Damara of Zen Flow Yoga and I, along with our kids, went out to pick up 75 smiley face balloons today. Add those to the 20 already in house and there are now 95 big yellow smiles filling my living room (aka: The Joy Team office).

These balloons, each accompanied with a specially-made card, are destined to to spread joy to every single patient spending Christmas in the hospital at Legacy Salmon Creek.  The cards carry simple wishes of joy and love and will be signed by several folks tomorrow before each are attached to a balloon. We’ll be delivering these bright bundles on Friday to Legacy Salmon Creek and the good people working there will pass them out to each patient on Christmas Eve. Our hope is that these small tokens will bring big cheer to not only the patients, but also to the hospital staff.

A big shout out to Seth (wearing the Santa hat above), one of two managers at The Civic Dollar Tree on West Burnside in Portland. He went out of his way to help by driving around and picking up enough smiley face balloons to fill our order.  He had them filled and waiting for us when we got there.

And some more love to Camille Hollingsworth and CRAVE Portland!  The raffle she held at the CRAVE Chat last month raised $88 for The Joy Team–and almost completely paid for this holiday cheer project.

Making a difference

Today, October 22nd, is Make a Difference day–a great opportunity to put forth a special effort to do something to make a difference for someone else.

Want some ideas? How about:

• giving a smile and a genuine “hello” to a few strangers
• taking a plate of cookies to a friend who had a tough week
• send a hand-written note to a person or two telling them how much they mean to you
• give out compliments–sincere ones
• help someone in need
• call your parents
• take food to a homeless shelter
• highlight your favorite charity on your Facebook page

We're 1!

Although The Joy Team truly began with a mother and her daughter spreading messages of joy, optimism and inspiration across Portland and Vancouver in November of 2009; the official beginning of The Joy Team as a non-profit corporation in the state of Washington began on February 19, 2010. One year ago today.

With the mission of spreading joy, optimism and inspiration to millions, we’ve done a lot in our first year.  In 2010, along with our 29 members and with the generous support of Clear Channel Outdoor Portland, we put up 28 billboards, effectively putting 25.9 million seeds of joy out into the world. Founder Michele McKeag Larsen has spoken about joy to a group of Girl Scout trainers, the job club at the Easter Seals, a first grade class at Hough Elementary, and a book release party for yogini Dana Layon. We created free holiday greeting cards for people with their own virtual billboard of joy. And early this year we created a directory of organizations working for joy, kindness and love: the Joy, Kindness & Love directory.

THANK YOU for all you’ve done to help support and encourage The Joy Team in our first year with our mission of spreading joy, optimism and inspiration to millions.  We couldn’t do it without you. Thank you, thank you.

We look forward to our second year with great excitement and optimism. Plans are in the works for this year’s joy campaigns, and we believe you’ll see our messages of joy, optimism and inspiration in more places in 2011. Want to be part of it?

The Daily Love

The Daily Love aims to show you the love and make you happy. And the best part about being happy is sharing that happiness with others.

Today’s Daily Love is awesome. It talks about setting goals — a popular topic in early January. Here’s my favorite part of today’s message:

Make 2011 the year you break free of limiting beliefs and realize that you have all the internal resources you need to create a life of abundance, joy and satisfaction. … Learn. Mess up. Grow. Repeat.

You can find The Daily Love in our Joy, Kindness & Love directory in the LOVE category.  And you can also find them here.

The Bright Way - Holiday Joy Billboard in Beaverton

Starting today bright yellow billboards will begin going up in Beaverton, Gresham, Oregon City, Portland, and Vancouver sending out holiday wishes of joy.

More than doubling the number of billboards in this second round of promoting joy, optimism and inspiration, we’ve brought together 18 Oregon and Washington businesses and one husband and wife couple from New Mexico to put up 20 bright yellow billboards that will spread 12.6 million wishes of joy this holiday season.

The billboards, all bearing one simple message: “Wishing you JOY”, will be put up this week and will remain up through the end of December, wrapping the holiday season in effort to spread joy when many people need it the most.

If you see one come up in your area, take a photo and send it to us. And let us know if it brings you a little holiday joy.

Pat & Don Johnson - Oregon City billboard

Holiday Joy Campaign billboard

Want to spread some holiday joy to 15,000 people a day? Right here in our community? AND get some exposure for you or your company while making those people smile?

Join The Joy Team for our Holiday Joy Campaign!  In partnership with Clear Channel Outdoor, we’re able to put up 20 billboards wishing those in our community joy.  Billboards will be up the week of November 15^th through end of December.  Each billboard gets nearly 15,000 impressions each day; which means with just one billboard you can send a message of joy from yourself or your organization to roughly 630,000.  That’s something to feel good about!

Holiday (Billboard) Greeting Card

Need a unique and personalized holiday card? We’re working on finding a photographer happy to help the cause by taking photos of people on November 20th in front of a billboard that they can use as a holiday greeting card—spreading even more joy.  (Know a good photog with a green screen??)

What does it cost to spread holiday joy to 630,000 from YOU, Clear Channel Outdoor and The Joy Team? By joining forces, way less then you might think: a $180 sponsorship.  Want to join us? 

There are only 20 spots available, so save yours NOW by calling Michele Larsen, Chief Joy Officer, at 503-724-7442 or emailing Michele (at) thejoyteam.org.

Wondering if anyone will notice? YES. Find out what people are saying about the first round of billboards.

I spent a little time at the Farmers Insurance call center in Hillsboro, Oregon, and was amazed at how hard they work to keep their workplace a positive place.

Over the sea of cubicles (which is, let’s face it, not so joyous) float more than a hundred mylar balloons (very joyous).  There’s an on-site gift shop filled with cheerful items where employees can buy–nearly at cost–those balloons, paper sunflowers, painted pots, butterfly magnets and more.  And on the walls all around the building are huge motivational pictures, including these:

Si, se puede -- Yes, it can be done: Cesar Chavez

Kicked out of school for asking too many questions: Thomas Edison

Started with $750 and won 32 Oscars: Walt Disney

He failed to get a job at a university: Albert Einstein

Was told he would never make a living playing guitar: John Lennon

A single mother on welfare: J.K. Rowling

Didn't make the high school basketball team: Michael Jordan

Lost hearing and vision at age 18 months: Helen Keller

She sat in the front of a bus: Rosa Parks

If Walt Disney can start with $750 and go on to create a magical empire,  and a guy who couldn’t make his high school basketball team can lead 6 world championships, and a single mother on welfare can write the Harry Potter series, and…then anything’s possible, right?

Si, se puede.

That’s a pretty great attitude to surround your employees with.

Thank you, Farmers Insurance, for spreading joy, inspiration and optimism at work!