Think Pink - Think Smart

This latest blog entry comes from our newest KooDooZ staff member, Christy Menefee. To date, Christy's work has been focused on partnering brands with non-profits in support of kid-empowerment events. I am particularly proud of the work she has done for the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Monica at the request of KooDooZ. In a down-economy, fund-raising efforts are not easily rewarded, but she has proven that people care and really do want to make a difference. Way to go Christy! Your energy and zest for life are insatiable.



(Any readers of this blog are welcome to request additional information about partnership opportunities by sending an email request to: info@koodooz.com)

WHAT IN YOUR LIFE IS PINK?

(by Christy Menefee)

There is nothing like the pink of a setting sun to stop you in your tracks -- and give you the pause you need to reflect on life itself.



Have you noticed each October that hundreds -- if not thousands -- of products are also colored pink, emblazoned with pink ribbons, or otherwise sold with a promise of donating a (small) portion of the total cost to support breast cancer awareness or research. That too gives me pause.



Like many people, I have deep relationships with friends (and family) who are linked to breast cancer one way or another. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 178,480 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer and about 40,460 women will die from the disease this year alone! On top of that, over 2 million women living in the United States will have been treated for breast cancer.



I think the best way to help each other deal with questions or concerns is to become educated on what exactly breast cancer is and how to prevent it from spreading.

There are basically 2 types of breast cancer, and within those types, there are five stages; stage 0 being an early stage of breast cancer and stage 4 being metastatic. These different stages are based on of the size of the tumor found in the breast. There are a variety of elements that can help us detect breast cancer at an early stage.



Here are 10 easy "Think Pink - Think Smart" steps you should challenge yourself to take:

1. Perform monthly breast exams and encourage others to do the same
2. Have annual clinical breast exams
3. Have regular mammography screenings after the age of 40
4. Get a group of ladies to go out to dinner, work, the park, and event and only wear pink -- even go to the clinic together
5. Encourage married men, brothers, fathers and sons to get the women in their lives screened -- guys... put an annual date in your calendars, it can be a shared responsibility
6. Some evidence suggests that rising health care costs and increasing co-pays may discourage women from seeking out testing. The financial burden of curing this disease can not be what prevents you from getting it into remission-- there are people in your life who are counting on you being around for them
7. Knowledge is power. Don't let the fear of knowing you have the disease be the reason you don't survive it
8. If you are a breast cancer survivor, mentor and support those who have been recently diagnosed
9. Free or low-cost mammograms may be available, even for women without insurance. There are state-by-state toll free cancer hotlines that can help point you in the right direction
10. If your life has been touched by breast cancer, share it out (do you blog?) - many people turn to the internet to understand first how other people handled the disease before they themselves take the first step towards a cure.

The survival rates for women with breast cancer have changed dramatically. Twenty years ago, three out of four women diagnosed with the disease died from it. Today, three out of four women survive the diagnosis.



It is never too early to begin screening yourself. Breast cancer doesn’t discriminate. There are cases of breast cancer from all different ages, anywhere from 20 years of age to 70 and older. And like many other diseases, breast cancer shows no mercy.



As a member of the KooDooZ team, I challenge you "to be aware of what is pink in your life." I personally vow to take the challenge, do my annual screens, and earn the reward of many more cherished moments admiring the crimson of a setting sun.

Reading With Children

In addition to her role as “Cause Cultivator,” Christine Guardia has been the right arm and left brain of the KooDooZ team. I have been impressed with her work, passion and dedication for youth and cause marketing.

Prior to graduate school, she worked as a government consultant for 12 years, holding the positions of Business Analyst, Training Manager & Communication Lead. Christine earned her MBA in public / nonprofit management & marketing. During her graduate studies she assisted family & youth focused organizations including BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), BOSTnet (Build the Out-of-School Time Network), and the Guidance Center. Perhaps most poignantly, she had the opportunity to work on JumpStart’s “Read for the Record” – a cause marketing campaign developed to raise awareness & funding for early childhood education. Her first blog entry is focused on “Reading With Children”

On October 2nd, hundreds of thousands of children will read the children’s classic book Corduroy to break a world record as part of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, a campaign to raise awareness of and funding for early childhood literacy programs.

Working on the campaign for two summers taught me that there is more to reading with a child than simply saying the printed words aloud. When reading a book with my two year old nephew, I ask him to name colors and shapes he sees on the pages, as well as questions about the characters in the book. My four year old nephew and I count items on the page together and talk about the story. For example, last year’s campaign book was The Story of Ferdinand, in which a bull is stung by a bee. My nephew had been stung by a bee for the first time a few weeks before we read the book and he explained to me how much it hurt when we got to that part of the story. He was able to connect the story to his personal experience and now every time we read the book, he exclaims “Ouch!” when the bull accidentally sits on the bee.

I cherish these shared moments and love how my nephews will often put down their toys to pick up books instead. My nephews are fortunate to have many books around their house, but not all children have age-appropriate books at home. A California State University study found that, on average, children in low-income communities have two age-appropriate books in their homes while children in middle-income communities have 54 age-appropriate books in their homes (Jeff McQuillan, The Literacy Crisis, 1998). Furthermore, children from low-income communities enter kindergarten with a quarter of the vocabulary of children from middle-income communities.

By participating in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record on Thursday, October 2nd, you can share the joy of reading with a child in your life, as well as help Jumpstart put age-appropriate books into the homes of the children who need them the most.

There are many ways you can participate in the campaign, including:
· Registering to read
· Buying a special edition of Corduroy
· Building or finding an event in your community

To learn more, please visit http://www.readfortherecord.org/.

Christine’s 15 years of for-profit and non-profit cause marketing and branding experience have allowed her to quickly add value to the KooDooZ community.

If you are a brand looking to impact kids in a meaningful way, contact Christine: cguardia@KooDooZ.com

How To Achieve Peace

KooDooZ is operating under the benefit of an incredible staff who deliver a wide array of knowledge and inspiration. I have invited the KooDooZ team to share their passion for KDZ by contributing to this string of consciousness. This first entry comes from Monika Zands who is a dynamic, spiritual advisor and family advocate. I enjoy Monika’s riveting stories and ability to bring the unimaginable to life. Her “super hero cape” is oft revealed through her writing, volunteer work and passion for children. Here’s what Monika wrote about International Peace Day:

Celebrating International Peace Day on September 21, 2008 marks another historic day in the quest for worldwide peace. When you think of peace it can be a relatively evasive topic. It may seem a lofty goal for some and for others it is part of their every day existence. The question I propose is, “How do we achieve peace?”

Since I will not find myself in Iraq or even at the next United Nations Conference, I found it helpful to first be clear about how peace is defined. When looking up the definition for peace I stumbled upon 17, yes that’s right 17, definitions for peace. And that does not include the countless quotes and speeches written for and about peace in the last century. If we consider that the pursuit of peace includes (i) the normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world. (ii) A state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors. and (iii) Freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquility; serenity, then what have you done in the past year to promote peace either within yourself or within the world?

There are many avenues down which to travel when considering the path to peace. No one way is the “right” way. In fact it may, like the definitions above, touch on a myriad of areas depending on the week, the month, the year, the moment. Peace can be inspired by something you see, touch, hear or feel. I can be a personal search through the body, the mind, emotionally or spiritually. It can be sought after financially or through outreach, advocacy and contribution. Maybe it is a social awareness or involvement. No matter the path, the question remains, “How do you achieve peace?”

Have you meditated in a still, harmonious setting?
Have you meditated on peace itself?
Have you directed peaceful thoughts towards yourself, your friends and family, your community, the nation, the world?
Do you remember to breathe?


What is your practice for achieving peace of mind?
1. This can be praying regularly or writing in a journal.
2. Practicing yoga or Tai Chi, meditating, setting bedtime intentions.
3. It can be the simple consistent practice of taking a deep breath and paying attention to your breath.
4. Repeat to yourself (or think)...."Peace be still" while simultaneously thinking of a place in your mind to a time in your past in which you experienced, "peace of mind"...be there visually, auditorily, and emotionally.
5. Mentally confess a promise to God and allow the promise to override a negative circumstance.

How do you achieve peace in your life?
1. Work through your unresolved issues using self forgiveness, releasing resent, resignation and resistance and loving yourself.
2. Collaborate, Compromise, and Contribute. This gives you a voice, flexibility and a wonderful feeling of giving back which certainly can soothe the soul.
3. Manage your time and schedule “me” time first instead of last.
4. Leave time for errands, avoid over-booking, keep your financial life organized and current to provide support and encouragement so you know what you have and what you can do. Pay your bills on time.
5. Learn how to take responsibility so you can recognize judgments and blame and avoid the cycle of victimization.

How do you achieve piece socially or globally?
1. Write advocacy letters or make donations supporting organizations for environmental issues you believe in.
2. Volunteer for an event in support of peace.
3. Educate yourself on the issues that need advocacy in your community, your city, your schools
4. Celebrate individuals who do make am impact in your community so they may be mentors and role models for our future generations.
5. Send care-packages and supplies to help rebuild the lives of war torn families.
6. Learn about ways you can contribute to the eradication of pandemic disease and the alleviation of poverty and hunger.
7. Read books with your children on topics such as environmental issues, bugs and their value, survival skills, and endangered animals.
8. Prepare food for the homeless or clean the beach.

There are countless creative ways to gain awareness and to being to be the change you wish to see in the world. Being a mentor and opening another person’s eyes to the gift of a shared smile can lessen the rage in the world.

As International Peace Day has been on my mind I asked my five year old son on the way home from school yesterday what peace means to him. I was fascinated and amazed at his comprehension and connection to this concept.

He said, “Mommy peace is when God takes care of the army and keeps everyone safe. The world is smiling and peace makes my heart smile too.” I sat there at the traffic signal like every proud mom might, reflecting on the wisdom of my bright-eyed five year old. I pondered my own answer to that question. I agree that peace really is at its essence that which makes my heart smile, an inner knowing and reassurance that everything is okay. My literal mind went straight to the big issues like the resolution of conflict, the desire for a world of love and optimism, honesty and living a life of truth and integrity, but I realized that would require control of situations that are simply out of my control. So I invite you to continuously ask yourself and your children, “How can each of us find more peace personally, socially, globally and spiritually?”

If you truly believe that peace is a worthy objective, then make peace within yourself. Start talking about peace with other people. Include it in a conversation. Ask questions about how to build peace. Advocate for peace, attend a seminar, a convention, a rally. Write and article or a poem about peace or sit down and draw images that represent peace to you. Make a peace vision board with a collage of images selected by your family and put it on the wall near your front door as a reminder of your stand for peace.

Peace, be it individual or at a community, national or global level, must begin within ourselves. Peace is individual and inspires others. Global peace requires that a large majority of the people in the world want peace, are prepared to act to secure peace, and enjoy, nurture and appreciate peace within themselves.

Beyond her work at KooDooZ, Monika is a Senior Life Strategist at Life Strategies specializing in creating custom solutions in home (and business) for effective and transactional communication, marketing, life (and business) strategies, creative processes, inner focus and accountability and self-reliability. In addition, Monika has spent time facilitating seminar’s and experiential workshops, consulting for numerous start-up companies and is a maven in negotiation, communication and interpersonal relationship building. Her titles include Director/ Producer/ Supervising Video Editor (corporate technologies); Co-Founder / Chief Strategic Officer (software/internet); and Owner (business consultant/ life strategist).

Educating the next Eco-Generation

It tugged at my heart when I read the words of Mark Gold, President of Heal The Bay, in his latest newsletter. Mark wrote about his son Jake, who had recently stopped complaining about being dragged out to another coastal cleanup day and who shared his dismay over urban decay at a creek. Mark mused over his daughter, Natalie, whom he noticed was enthralled by a sea hare at the local aquarium and excitedly engaged those around her to be equally as vested. And I could detect a swell of pride when Mark mentioned that his oldest son, Zack, had testified passionately at Santa Monica City Council for a plastic bag ban.

Kids care. When we empower them the right way, kids make a difference.

I’m sure Mark will be the first to tell you that the Santa Monica City Council voted 13-0 to adopt a citywide policy that would forbid the use of plastic carryout bags at all supermarkets and retail establishments by 2010 unless the state imposed a 0.25-cent per bag fee. (see more here) Today, California taxpayers spend more than $25M a year to collect and dispose of the 19B one-use shopping bags distributed annually. Because I live in greater L.A., I’m going to single out my “city of angles.” Consumers in Los Angeles use more than 2B single use plastic bags every year.

So here we have three kids, each of who affects change by leveraging three very different resources -- ADVOCACY, SCIENCE and LEGISLATION. Parental skills aside, it’s worth considering the fact that EXPOSURE, EDUCATION and OPPORTUNITY are the tools that enabled these kids to become change-makers (like their dad).

The topic of youth engagement is a complex one. Parents can feel intimidated when they consider the amount of protest they have to endure getting kids to clean their rooms, let alone getting them to bend down and pick up trash off a beach.

When it comes to "giving back to a community," I would argue that the challenge is less important than the reward of an achievement. With volunteering, the ultimate reward is earning essential social skills which will move them ahead in society. Volunteering increases a kid’s understanding of the world around them and it also brings a new sense of confidence and self-gratification.

With that, I want to personally congratulate those kids in Los Angeles county, who last year picked up 92.25 pounds of trash! Some 600-students -- all 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders – were empowered!

I am looking forward to learning how many more kids Heal The Bay will attract with their event, this year on September 20th, 2008. How many more bottle caps will be picked up on a beach? (Since 1985, California Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers have picked up over 1-million bottle caps and over 300,000 bottles). How many more volunteers? (Last year over 11-million). How many more pounds of recyclable debris? (Last year, over 5,500 pounds).

For more information: 310.451.1500 or visit Heal The Bay on the web: (www.healthebay.org)

Corporate Social Responsibility

I was invited to speak to an elite Los Angeles group of high powered CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) about innovation and corporate social responsibility. Representing an array of organizations (size, demographics, geographic reach & industry focus), the question I wanted to ask the group to tackle was:

• “Is Corporate Social Responsibility working?
  o If so, “How do you define CSR success?”

Over the last few years, all of us – consumers, employees and business leaders – have been shepherded into the “responsible business movement” without the benefit of true definition and scope.

And the result? Some corporations swear they have earned net-positive triple bottom line rewards: a-la “profit, planet & people” – and other corporate CSR initiatives have been labeled as expensive, “green-washing” failures that have actually damaged a company and/or its brand reputation. What has crystallized, for me, is the obvious need for greater collaboration between organizations and the people in them. We need to do this so that we can define true integrated strategies that address the issues of sustainability and social justice.

The bottom line is, sustainability is not a business issue – it’s a societal concern – in which business is deeply implicated. We share this planet and therefore responsibility to its ecology and people.

Since our current business climate allows voluntary and free-market CSR measures – we are recognizing “niche” successes. Critics are demanding that our government get involved. But were we to mandate CSR through legislative intervention, I think we’d run the risk of stifling innovation around these societal problems.

When evaluating whether a company has a successful CSR initiative, I proposed that the following checklist be considered:

• At the organization’s helm, is there a visionary leader or a clearly-assigned CSR implementer?
  Achievement of complex sustainability outcomes is related to the attainment of advanced leadership capabilities. While it doesn’t have to be the CEO, this executive has to have the overall responsibility for delivering CSR objectives, and the authority to remove internal roadblocks.
  
• Is there complete internal “departmental” commitment to the CSR initiative?
  Suppliers need a consistent message, especially between the sourcing & merchandising departments
  
• Does the CSR initiative have measurable goals? (You can’t improve what you don’t measure)
  o Business Ethics / Governance
  o Community Outreach
  o Diversity / Employee Empowerment
  o Environmental Stewardship / Green Practices / Sustainable Development
  o Philanthropy
  o Employee Relations
  o Human Rights
  o Lobbying
  o Transparency / Financial Disclosures
  
• What recognition programs are in place for stakeholders?
  o Supply Chain
  o Employees (volunteerism / gift matching)
  o Community in which the business serves
  o Consumer Engagement
  
• Are there sound external relationships to engage effective Corporate-Community Partnerships?
  o NGOs, Charities, Non-profits, For-profits
  
• Why is the organization engaging in CSR?
  o To enhance the corporate image?
  o In response to stakeholder pressures?
  o Innately part of the corporate culture?

There is a growing body of evidence that links companies which take their pursuit of social and environmental goals seriously -- firms guided by enlightened innovative values -- with superior stock market performance, low employee turn-around and excellent reputations.

As it turns out, my question shouldn't have been whether or not corporate social responsibility is working, but rather "What can we, as business innovators do to make CSR work better?"

Getting in the Spotlight

While this blog has primarily been set up as an informational resource for parents, mentors & families of the kids participating in the KooDooZ beta, I have decided to include a very indepth interview with the founder of REGARD VENTURES, Steve Beauregard, who has been a guiding light in shaping, funding & incubating KooDooZ.

It is my sincere hope that anyone who has the stamina to take their amazing ideas into the public light will have someone as good as Steve to guide them. None of us really does anything completely alone.

There are always helping hands, inspiring ideas and a community behind the achiever.

Interview performed by Tech Zulu

Thanks Steve.

To Treat Fair…is to Treat Different

I watched with amusement as my friend broke a chocolate-chip cookie in half, and counted how many delicious milk-chocolate chunks were on one side versus the other.

“What are you doing?” I asked, as she nibbled a jagged edge off one half. “Walking a tightrope,” she said. “No matter how equal I try to make things, somehow the kids tell me I’m not being fair.”

I had to laugh. I’d been there, and had learned that the cookie crumbles differently every time. It’s never perfectly fair, or perfectly equal. Nor is life, for that matter.

A parent’s attempt to judiciously allocate, divide, and share everything equally does not offer balance – it does the exact opposite. Kids are given the false impression that “fair” is synonymous with “exactly the same,” and instead of discouraging sibling rivalry, we accelerate it.

“How often do your kids NEED exactly the same amount of any one thing at the same moment?” I ask my friend. I squint, as though this will somehow bring my pointed question into focus for her, and I punctuate it with the shake of my head. “Almost never,” I answer my own query.

The point is, children benefit from their parent’s ethical act of keeping the needs of the individual child balanced against the kid's (and the sibling’s) perception of what is fair. Alas, so many perceptions are in the eye of the beholder.

"It's not fair" is all too common an outburst of school age children. So ingrained is that sentiment, that it was reported the average teenager will say "it's not fair" 8.6 times a day! (see source).

There's a way to dimish, if not eliminate that statement all together.

Treat your children differently – based on who they are and what they need. In doing so, you will treat them fairly.

Like it or not, your kids are different – from each other, and from you. Based on who they're becoming, and the stage of life they’re in, their levels of patience, stamina, independence, need for approval, desire to be alone, sense of humor, and perception of self… are different. This is what sets them apart as individuals.

As you make decisions about who gets what when and for what reason. Don't forget that beyond our individual drivers, that tricky little quirk known as "human nature,” can occasionally cause actions and reactions which contradict individual values. In certain situations – such as being presented with two halves from which to choose – the instinct to compare and measure what’s offered is inevitable. (And this becomes magnified when the other recipient is a sibling or rival, regardless of want or need!)

Most everyone I know is eager to get the biggest slice of life -- not to mention the bigger half of a chocolate chip cookie!