Click Here to Read article via LinkedIn Will your business send a book to 1 UK school? Last week I chose Michael Rosen's 'Sad Book' illustrated by Quentin Blake as the book of the week for the LearningTutor.co.uk 'buy a book' literacy initiative. Since its publication in 2004, I have personally gifted many copies of Rosen's Sad Book to my students, colleagues, family and friends except I forgot last year!... So I decided to buy 5 copies to send to 5 schools this year. The book is a gift - to me it's like giving someone (a teacher) a moment to share a story with a class, to learn form it, to accept that we all have bad days, and to appreciate a genuine story from recognised author and an illustrator via the Sad Book. So I took to Twitter and sent a tweet out via @LearningTutorUK on Saturday 9th January 2016 asking for nominations as I was undecided which schools should receive a copy, I had no idea that my tweets would have a reach of over 164,000+ impressions including re-tweets from the Award Wining Author Michael Rosen himself! (Thank you Michael Rosen). Tweet, after tweet, re-tweets and more tweets... If you've read Rosen's Sad Book you will know it is a poignant yet a wonderful teaching and learning aid - my next post will elaborate on the reasons why I chose this book and why I recommend it for all ages. I had no intention of creating a storm of tweets from all over the UK to nominate schools - to be perfectly honest I am still learning how to use Twitter for business! However, on Saturday and Sunday, tweet, after tweet, re-tweets and more tweets bombarded the@LearningTutorUK stream I realised that 5 books was not going to satisfy the rally of tweeters and I did not want to disappoint anyone. I guess after reading Rosen's Sad Book I felt compelled to offer more books to schools... I have now pledged 100 books and am so humbled by the messages and responses from the everyone including the schools, teachers, parents that nominated schools. I cannot wait to dispatch all the books! Having calmed the storm by announcing limited numbers of books '5, 2, last one' I felt quite sad about disappointing people that had missed the opportunity to nominate a school and reluctantly pinned a 'sorry and thank you' to the Twitter profile... I sat up all night thinking about the people that did not get their chance to nominate a school and decided to create the #SadBookChallenge based on the principle that: 'everyone has a story and if one shares, who knows how many more will...' - let's pitch a little kindness. Emphatically this challenge has to be meaningful and not a marketing scheme! Everyday businesses send gifts and engage in marketing activities so I want to ensure that the 'compassionate' element in this challenge is not overseen. In my view, Rosen's sad book is an essential resource for schools. Therefore a note has to be included with the book so that the school is aware of why you have sent this book to them - be aware there are legal implications for businesses sending unsolicited goods and it is in my view not good business practice. Hence the challenge is simple and direct. Anyone can participate in this challenge but I felt I would pitch the idea to all UK businesses and see which businesses would take it up... Without hesitation the UK Business Circle (thank you Gavin Rookyard) and UKBC members raced to the challenge and I am certain at least 10 businesses will and already have sent a book to a school! Here's how it works:
Of course anyone and other countries can take this challenge on too. It's an open choice as long as a book goes to a bonafide school. And you can send more than one book if you wish to a school for their classes or library. So, how do you pitch 'kindness' to a business and who wins? Create a challenge, make some noise and tell them who wins! Businesses be aware of legal implications for sending 'unsolicited goods', it is in my view not good business practice and not moral to think you're going to make a lot of money out of this challenge. My aim is to help raise literacy, creative writing skills, encourage reading and spread a little kindness using Rosen's Sad Book. Sad Book is a great resource for supporting children (and adults) with topics such as grief, sadness and bereavement. Well okay, I guess I also figured by sending 100 books out I can add a business card, sticker or leaflet and personal letter to the envelope (-that's the kindness part) to say why I am gifting this particular book to the school - my next post will explain more about my personal and educational reasons. As aforementioned I personally intended to gift just 5 books... overwhelmed with the tweets, I decided to go for another 25, 10, 20.... eventually gifting 95 more books than I had originally intended! Then the obvious costs and calculations thoughts started to boggle my mind, envelopes, stamps etc. and was I going to purchase these via the business? and how would I justify the spend?... my business mind took over - Pitch the challenge to other businesses get them involved and let's see who else is willing to 'out of kindness' to send a book to a school? I am pleased that 100 schools will receive a Sad Book over the next 5-10 days from me, with 100 personal notes... so who wins? Well, I could add a business card, branded sticker and a leaflet into 95 envelopes - these are after all the books purchased via the business and so the spend could be put down as a 'marketing cost'. In kindness, however, 95 schools will receive an Award Wining Book from an amazing author to share with children. The underlying message of the Sad Book is we all have a bad day and if this book can help others have better days then everyone wins! If the business get's a little publicity for being 'kind' then it also wins. There is no obligation for the school to keep the book or indeed buy more or any service or product from the business - the book is a gift - it's like giving someone a moment to share a story, to learn form it, to accept that we all have bad days, and to appreciate a genuine story from recognised author and an illustrator via the Sad Book. A resource a school can use for many years! #SadBookChallenge begins Tuesday January 12th 2016 Remember: 'everyone has a story and if one shares, who knows how many more will...' - let's pitch a little kindness - Inspired by Michael Rosen's Sad Book. Get involved in the #SadBookChallenge via @LearningTutorUK
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