SECOND ANNUAL DO GOOD DAY SET FOR AUGUST 4, 2010
Posted on | June 30, 2010 | View Comments
do good marketing, llc, a virtual advertising and marketing firm whose headquarters are located in Glen Rock, N.J., has announced its second annual do good day for Wednesday, August 4, 2010. Do good day was established by do good day marketing’s Michael Haviland, whose business philosophy is simply to do good marketing that does good for others. Last year, do good day had nearly 1,500 participants, mostly generated through Facebook. Do good day is a day where anyone, anywhere in the world is asked to do something good for someone else. Acts of altruism can be as simple as opening the door for someone.
“At do good marketing we measure our success by our ability to use our marketing talents to do good marketing for our clients and use those skills to do good for others,” said Haviland. “What better way to do that in a coordinated effort than to get as many people as possible to do something nice for someone else on do good day? Imagine what it would be like if everyone in the world decided to do something nice for someone else all on the same day? Who knows, maybe the world would break out in peace?”
Last year’s response to the first annual do good day was overwhelming. Participants were not only located in New Jersey, but all over the nation. “The stories were touching,” said Haviland. “One woman donated her car to a needy family for six weeks and another paid the toll for a vehicle behind him on the Garden State Parkway!”
While the inaugural event generated nearly 1,500 participants with very little effort, for this year’s event, do good marketing has established an integrated communications plan to maximize participation. In addition to traditional public relations strategies, do good marketing will be using social media platforms to disseminate information to participants before, during and after the event on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. A dedicated do good day page has been established on do good marketing’s Facebook page (search Facebook: Do Good Day 080410) where volunteers can register, post messages or photos; a Twitter hashtag has been created so all participants can monitor do good day activities prior to, during and after the event (#dgd0804); and Haviland will be posting video blogs or vloggings about do good day to the Facebook page and YouTube sites. All participants are encouraged to join the conversation leading up to the annual event, post pictures, videos and encourage their friends to join in.
With more than 400 million active users on Facebook these days, Haviland wants to fully utilize the social media platform to increase participation in do good day, hoping that the message will go viral to friends of friends, colleagues, and families all over the world.
“To date, we have over 1,000 people registered for do good day,” said Haviland. “The number one question I get is, ‘what if I’m not here on do good day?’ Anyone can participate and do something nice for someone else and it doesn’t matter where you are!”
The offices of the do good team marketing team will be closed on August 4th to enable all to participate in various philanthropic activities.
Do good marketing, llc, established in 2008, is a virtual marketing/advertising firm. While the do good world headquarters are in Glen Rock N.J., the virtual structure draws upon people and organizations located across the country. Do good clients receive top talent, but only pay for what they need. Michael Haviland, 49, is the founder and managing partner and has over 25 years’ worth of advertising experience including some of the big firms in New York City and New Jersey. Current do good marketing clients include: Aurora Energy, Bergen Catholic High School, Children’s Aid and Family Services, Lenox Hill Hospital, Makai Events, Morris County Surgical Center, NAPA Auto Parts, Nutley Auto, Nyack Hospital, onebaddecision.com, Saint Dominic Academy, the Center for Alcohol and Drug Resources, Tuxedo Park Library and Tuxedo Park School. For more information, visit www.dogoodmarketing.com.
Glen Rock’s Engineering Program in the New York Times
Posted on | June 14, 2010 | View Comments
Photo courtesy of the New York Times
Today’s New York Times shows an article focused on Glen Rock’s new engineering in elementary schools program.
Check it out!
Quoted from the article:
Here in Glen Rock, where students have long excelled at math and science, administrators and teachers decided to incorporate engineering into the elementary grades to connect classroom learning to real life, as well as to instill social skills like collaboration and cooperation that are valued in the work force, said Kathleen Regan, the curriculum director.
Fantastic to see our top-notch education system featured so prominently in a (inter)national publication such as the NYT. Congratulations to all involved.
Pool re-opens! Children rejoice! Adults sweat!
Posted on | June 6, 2010 | View Comments
That time is upon us, once again — the Glen Rock Municipal Pool (ironically not named after anyone, yet) is open for the season. While currently open only on weekends, once the schools let out, it will be open every day. Pass range from $40 for those under 5 to $110 for each adult. Mercifully, the cap per family is $335 for those of you with Duggar-like inclinations.
Pool season is a great way for all of us to mix and mingle and see each other in significantly less clothing than we do at the train station, bus stop and Kilroy’s. In addition, our kids can play together again without the artificial boundaries of their class rosters. Overall it’s a fun time for everyone involved. Not to mention that the pool itself is truly a fantastic facility.
Compared to Ridgewood and Fair Lawn’s sand-bottom “lakes,” the Glen Rock pool is clear, clean and beautiful. The facilities are relatively modern and water temp, surprisingly, is always comfortable. Finally, the physical separation of the kiddie pool leaves the unnaturally warm waters frequented by the under 5 set completely autonomous thus making the adult section of the pool, relatively free of anything that shouldn’t be in there.
Enjoy pool season and make sure your kids get those swim lessons.
Science. It’s the new black.
Posted on | May 6, 2010 | View Comments
According to this brief write-up on NorthJersey.com, the new science and technology wing at Glen Rock High School will be complete by year’s end and is coming in, get this, UNDER budget. According to the article, the new science wing will have:
…nine state-of-the-art laboratories, a computer-aided drawing lab and a greenhouse…
This project came about through serendipitous timing prior to the economic melt-down and is progressing so well that it is projected to come in for LESS than originally expected.
This sounds like an amazing facility and the students at Glen Rock High School will be lucky to have access to it starting in January 2011. Very reassuring to see the dedication of GRHS to the sciences.
Any Glen Rock parent musicians?
Posted on | May 4, 2010 | View Comments
As many of us grew up we learned how to play musical instruments. Some of us even played in bands. Now that we’re parents those days may seem long gone but, in reality, there’s still the opportunity to make music in between soccer games, school activities and trips to the shore.
How many of you were once aspiring musicians? Wannabe rock stars?
The opportunity to create a roster of willing musicians with large enough garages or basements to hold monthly jams is too good to pass up. Use the comments section to let us know who you are and what you play. In addition give yourself a quick rating so the right folks can get together (e.g., I play trumpet and am an intermediate level player).
As more comments come in, this blog and the comments section can serve to connect those folks together and hopefully spur some new Glen Rock parent bands.
Rock on!
School Budget Elections Tomorrow!
Posted on | April 19, 2010 | View Comments
Tomorrow, Tuesday April 20th is election day for the borough of Glen Rock. On the ballot is the school’s annual budget. Please remember to vote. It’s important that every resident has their say on the programs and plans for the future of our children.
There are lots of sites with information on what’s on the ballot, what the budget is and where to vote. Here are a few:
NorthJersey.com has a breakdown of the budget
Now get out there and vote!
Bergen Blue Laws Come Into Question
Posted on | April 11, 2010 | View Comments
For the past 50+ years Bergen County has shut down on Sundays. Bergen’s blue laws are unique to the area and offer, to some, a reprieve from the traffic, noise and general hectic nature of Saturday’s business hours. In an effort to plug a budget hole, NJ Governor Christie has suggested doing away with these laws. The proposal states that the extra day of business would shore up the necessary revenue.
Not surprisingly, many residents are not thrilled with this decision. Some have gone so far as to put up a website and petition to attempt to halt this plan here: http://www.keepbergenbluelaws.com/ .
Where do you stand on this issue? Should we keep our blue laws or should we repeal them and open businesses up on Sundays? Tell us in the comments.
Make-up Fool’s Day
Posted on | April 1, 2010 | View Comments
The weather has caused the Glen Rock school system to close a few more time than they’d like this year. This puts them behind the eight ball in getting to the requisite number of academic days needed by law. The decision was made to make up one day during spring break.
Thursday.
This Thursday.
Today.
April Fool’s Day.
The motivation for the decision is clear – take an opportunity to make up a day by reducing vacation. This seems to make sense except that it doesn’t.
The news of this decision came very close to the beginning of the vacation meaning anyone who had any plans to travel with their kids was not going to make it back to school on that Thursday. In addition, getting kids motivated to school only to lull them back into the arms of another 3-day weekend means the activities on this Thursday would be lost – no continuity, homework or follow-up for another 3 days.
Finally, this decision puts the burden of attendance back on the parents. It no longer becomes a vacation day that the kids had off anyway. The parent (us) now has to decide whether it’s worth altering vacation plans to make their kid go to school today or to miss it at which point the child is penalized for missing the day. The school needs to be open a certain number of days a year. That’s clear and understood however when making decisions to alter the vacation schedules (many of which have to align with other schools’ schedules, work schedules, sitter schedules, etc) it would be advisable for the city to present its plan significantly sooner to the parents.
Class of 2023
Posted on | March 27, 2010 | View Comments
This year’s incoming kindergartners are the future Glen Rock High School class of 2023! As if the year 2000 didn’t sound futuristic enough for us, the parents of these children, the year 2023 sounds almost not real. While education and education methods have evolved since we were in primary school, the core interaction model – teacher in front of students, in a class, covering topics and assigning homework has not changed. As we attended classes back then it’s not hard to recall the dreams of the future where we imagined what education would be like in the years post 2000.
Has the model not evolved because nothing better has been invented? Or is it because we, given the generational momentum of this model, would be uncomfortable with new (and potentially unproven methods) ?
Will education still resemble today’s model in 2023?
Tell us in the comments what you think.
The Storm with No Name
Posted on | March 20, 2010 | View Comments
Photo courtesy of northjersey.com
How did you fare? Did you lose power? Are you still without power?! That was some storm last weekend and Glen Rock certainly took a beating. From the comfort of our homes perhaps it didn’t seem as vicious as it was (unless of course something fell on to your house). The aftermath however proved to be disruptive to most Glen Rock residents. 80% of homes lost power in our town according to the town web site. That’s significant. In addition, all schools were closed for a couple of days. This of course made any kind of transition back into the work week, a bit more challenging.
There are still many trees down around the neighborhoods and it’s not clear whether everyone has power back. The outages, at least for the younger children can cause confusion and anxiety but once that wears off the fun of candles, flashlights and perhaps a trip to grandma’s for some heat, light and warm food brings on a small sense of adventure.
So, how did you make out? What accommodations did you have to make on Monday and Tuesday since the kids couldn’t go to school? Tell us in the comments.