Pimp My Pumpkin

Today at Heritage we had our first annual PIMP MY PUMPKIN contest! There were two different categories, carved and decorated! It was fun to see what everyone showed up with.

Ezmerelda was entered in the carved pumpkin contest. She was GREAT, and extremely detailed! (I need a better camera so I can take pictures of things like.....pumpkins! Feel free to leave the boss a blog comment requesting that I get a high-end professional camera! No really...go ahead.)

Ezmeralda witched her way right in to 2nd place!

We also had a carved John Deere pumpkin. All the guys loved this one! Why are guys so fascinated with tractors, and things that are spray painted green?? Whatever the reason, that great design and spray paint won that tractor lovin' boy $50 cash for 1st prize in the carved category!

In the decorated category we had 5 pumpkins to choose from!

Murray the Mummy was adorable! He had a little glittered head and squiggly eyes. He was super cute! So cute in fact, he won second place in the decorated contest!

We needed a high end arts category for the next two. The Nightwatchmen and the Naked Eye of Objectivity is our next featured pumpkin. It was a creative design and I always love a pumpkin with a story!

Can you say Better Homes & Gardens? This fabulous trio of pumpkins was amazing. The title of it was Nightmare before Christmas Tree. It's hard to see, but there are small holes drilled through the two bottom pumpkins and lights inside. It was impressive to say the least.

The Octomom pumpkin was featured with a few of her little ones. As you can tell by her expression she was overjoyed with her 1st prize recognition. Doesn't she look thrilled? She's hoping to get a Pimp My Pumpkin book deal.

And finally we had an adorable crafty pumpkin with an equally adorable title, "Sassy & Flashy I wanna WIN some Cashy!"

Stay tuned for another exciting contest from your friends at Heritage. Pimp my...Christmas Wreathe, maybe? Okay maybe not.

Check it out!

I usually don’t do two blog posts in one week but this event is tomorrow...and it’s so important I HAD to share it with you! Our promotional products team (remember we call them the ASI group) recently helped Integris come up with a few products to feature for Men’s Health University. This was tricky since the Men’s Health University covers a few subjects that we don’t freely talk about! Why don’t we talk about it??? We talk about breast cancer awareness all the time, but subjects for men’s health aren’t addressed as much! That is one main reason why Integris began this program.

This came from the Integris Men’s Health website…

Getting men to schedule annual check-ups is at best like pulling teeth. The alpha-male is taught from an early age that their individual health is not a main concern. The hunter/gatherer looks to take care of the family first, although by overlooking their own health they are doing the family a disservice. Men usually delay or avoid seeking medical attention even when they know something could be wrong.

That's why INTEGRIS Health has developed Men's Health University. Men-U gives men the opportunity for free health checks and cancer screenings in a tailgate party environment with food and door prizes. 

The 2009 Men's Health University will be Saturday, October 24th from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Francis Tuttle Techonology Center - Reno Campus, which is located at 7301 W. Reno.

The health and cancer screenings include: Glucose, Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, Vision, Hearing, EKG, Prostate, Colon, Oral, Skin and Colo-Rectal.

We ordered two products for Integris. The first was a self exam card that says “Hey Guys, Get Checked!” It gives detailed instructions for guys to do self examinations (so detailed, in fact, that I won’t be sharing them with you here, but I do encourage you guys to check out the Integris Men’s Health website! There’s a ton of great information and resources on the site!) Also we ordered a scroll pen, it features a chart with ages that men should have routine examinations. We feel like this is a great program, and think the folks at Integris do a wonderful job of keeping the state educated on potential health risks!

So tell the men in your life to get up, get out and "get checked" tomorrow!!

Bus Stop.....

Recently we produced a very cool piece for an emerging design studio in Oklahoma City, Studio fj, and their client ACOG. ACOG is the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, and their purpose is to aid local governments in planning for common needs, cooperating for mutual benefit, and coordinating for sound regional development. ACOG is an organization of, by and for local governments that allows member entities to work in partnership to address issues or problems common to many jurisdictions. This regional cooperation serves to strengthen both the individual and collective capabilities of local governments.

This cool piece that the talented team over at Studio fj designed was the School Bus Idling Reduction: Project Report & Implementation Guide for Oklahoma School Districts. (Yes kids, you still have to write reports when you’re finished with school!)


The design was headed up by Studio fj's Owner, James Harber, and designer Kaleb Nimz. The introduction from the report states the following: “School bus idling wastes fuel and financial resources while producing exhaust emission that are harmful to human health and the environment. Beginning in late 2006, ACOG, Choctaw-Nicoma Park Public Schools, and the OK Department of Environmental Quality undertook a two-year project to determine the extent of fuel and emissions saving that OK school districts might expect by instituting a maximum five-minute school bus idling policy. This report offers the study’s finding to public school districts in Oklahoma and elsewhere so that limited resources can be maximized and children, teachers, bus drivers, parents, school administrations and other can enjoy the benefits of a healthier environment.” It amazes me all that goes in to making our city, country, and world environmentally safe and protected, and it makes me see how much we take for granted.

I know you’re thinking, “KJ aren’t you going to tell us WHY the printed piece was so cool??” Of course I am! Studio fj wanted to take a fresh approach and do something a little different with this project. It has spot UV on uncoated stock. (Gasp!)

In the past spot UV was used on coated stock to give a high definition finish and shine. When applied to uncoated stock it absorbed into the stock and really did nothing, you couldn’t even tell anything was different. Thanks to products and technology it is now possible to apply the spot UV on uncoated stock and achieve great contrast, and that’s just what we did. Also a readymade envelope was purchased and we printed it digitally in four color process. See…told you it was super cool!
Great design Studio fj! ACOG we thank you for researching the harmful effects of school bus emissions, therefore promoting a clean city for all of us!

Global Handwashing Day

Today is Global Handwashing Day! No, that does not mean it's the only day this year you need to wash your hands!

This is straight from the Global Handwashing Day website.... "October 15, 2009 will revolve around schools and children. On Global Handwashing Day, playgrounds, classrooms, community centers, and the public spaces of towns and cities will be awash with activity to drive handwashing behavior change on a scale never seen before, bringing the critical issue to center stage. Global Handwashing Day will be the centerpiece of a week of activities that will mobilize millions of people in more than 70 countries across all five continents to wash their hands with soap." It's a great initiative, you should check out their website!

At Heritage we thought it would be fun to make some posters (for our own restrooms) promoting hand washing. We also handed some posters out to customers along with some mini hand sanitizers as well! The signs said "Share your ideas. Share your lunch. Share your creativity. Share your money. Share your toys. Share your time....BUT DON'T SHARE YOUR GERMS!"

Our delivery drivers absolutely loved handing out little fru-fru bags of hand sanitizers with their deliveries this week! I'm sure they were muttering things like "that dang PR girl has us doing what??"

The little sanitizers say Heritage on them! (Want some with your company logo? Our ASI Team can make that happen!)

Since most kids in Oklahoma are out of school today for Fall Break, that doesn't leave much room for in-school activities focused on Global Handwashing Day. My 1st grader is out of school today so she got to tag along with me at work. She's loved it so far (there's an endless supply of paper and something called booger glue! What kid wouldn't be happy here??)

She asked me what she could do today and I told her she could help me blog! She was very excited. I told her the blog topic was hand washing and she said she should show people how to wash their hands.

Here are her directions (in her own words):

You should use soap to wash your hands.

You should use water whenever you're scrubbing with the soap.

Umm...use a towel to open the door, so you don't get more germs.

So easy a 6 year old can do it!

Knowing the importance of good handwashing is imperative in this germ-filled world we live in! Remember these words on this Global Handwashing Day..."Share your ideas. Share your lunch. Share your creativity. Share your money. Share your toys. Share your time....BUT DON'T SHARE YOUR GERMS!"

Happy Washing.

MADly in Love's

At Heritage we are MADly in love with Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores corporation! Not only are they a great company, they are also doing some great things within their company for the employees. Their internal brand is “Making a Difference, You Take Care of Your Customers and We’ll Take Care of You!” (I worked for a company once and their motto was “You take care of your customers, or we fire you”, as you can see Love’s has a MUCH more motivating campaign!)

Heritage created an internal website for Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Corporate Office that features Love’s branded items.

Each employee at the corporate office was given 10 Making a Difference (MAD) cards. When an employee observes another employee “living the brand”, they give them a MAD card. There is a space on the back of the card to write what the employee did to “make a difference”. Once the card is filled out, the card is delivered to the employee, and the employee can redeem it online to order Love’s merchandise.

The program is employee-driven, so the spirit of recognition is in the employees hands! The human relations department at Love’s tracks weekly what cards are given, and to date 290 employees have given cards, and 314 have received cards. The program is working well for the corporate office, and the employees appreciate the recognition.

We receive the orders here at Heritage and every other week we hand deliver gift bags, with hand written notes attached, to the corporate office. The folks at Love’s then deliver the bags to the employees, it’s personal and makes the employees feel special! When employees receive their gift bags it literally changes their life! (Okay…. so maybe its not life changing, but the point is, they’re happy!! And making people happy is what we specialize in!)

Great job Love’s for inspiring your employees to MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Editors Note: MAD is not the only program we have partnered with Love’s on. We also work with Love’s subsidiary companies (Musket & Gemini) on their online uniform ordering program. WHAT? You want us to blog about that too? Okay, okay…patience grasshopper. Patience.