Autumn comes in all its glory to slake the thirst of a bone dry earth after a long rainless summer. What a summer it’s been! Well not great if you’re a farmer and a challenge for us gardeners but all those hot summer evenings were something else.
We have been busy exploring new ways to communicate to the world. We now have a Face Book page. Joining the social networking space has been interesting and while we are resisting the call of Twitter we thought to at least dip our toes in the digital ocean a little more and see what comes of it. I have already learnt my first lesson – check your spelling and grammar! It’s so easy to tear off a comment to Face Book without checking.
You can find us on Face Book by searching for BigBuddy. We will be there with pictures, videos, regular stories and mini moments of joy. We have also stretched out into blogging – I have my own blog – www.richardaston.co.nz and the Big Buddy blog can be found from our web site, at the bottom of the home page along with the Face Book link.
Back in an ‘old school’ medium, we are trying out ‘the wireless’ with radio ads running on all the major stations in Wellington and a couple of stations in Auckland. Our ads are kind of quirky and are getting a lot of interest. They were created by Sarah Waters from the ‘The Pond’ creative group and recorded by Ben Sinclair of ‘Images and Sounds’. They did it all pro-bono and we are grateful for their generous support. Sarah entered the ads in the Radio Ad Awards for April so here’s hoping.
We will also be doing some work on our web site to allow us to keep it fresh and add video etc to it. The updated site is not live yet but hopefully by June it will be – so watch out for it.
On another front, I am developing a business idea that has the potential to create an alternative income stream for Big Buddy. It’s based on our well honed skills in screening men. We are looking to offer a professional screening service to the likes of CYFs, Schools, Early Childhood Centers etc to help ease their fears about employing men to care for young children. Its early days yet but with financial help from our friends at the Tindall Foundation we are doing a feasibility study to fully scope it out. I will update you in our next newsletter.
Thinking about funding, I’d like to acknowledge the work done for us by Jude Gillies, our funding person. Tony is still doing funding work but the job has got much bigger so Jude has been working part time to help out. She has a long history in not-for-profits, is very skilled and works at a sometimes frantic pace. I like working with Jude and she likes working with us.
While all this goes on we are of course still meeting lots of good men wanting to volunteer their time as mentors and many wonderful boys and their mums and caregivers who approach us for help. That’s the great thing about my job, one minute I’m being interviewed for the NZ Herald or working on business ideas, the next I get a call like this one – from a young woman who told me that before her two younger stepbrothers had Big Buddies, life for her was a nightmare. They were really difficult boys to live with and there was lots of tension in the family. With the Big Buddies now on the scene, it’s all changed. Family life is much happier and peaceful. I could hear she was close to tears when she said, “…for what you have done for my brothers and my family I want to thank Big Buddy from the bottom of my heart“.
Now that’s a great way to start Autumn!
Go well friend.
