Saturday, May 1st was all about what is possible, and what is easily fixed about connecting small businesses with their communities. I visited several different places with my young son Jordan, and saw many great examples of companies taking traditional and non-traditional approaches to engagement.
Our first stop of the day was an early morning trip to Downey High School’s annual garage sale. Here I found many local businesses getting out and either selling their wares, or just getting their brand out there with special offers to come in and try out their product or service.
The Modesto Nuts were there, and they had some very special things going on. They were selling off their Modesto A’s gear. think about how cool that is for a second. They are taking advantage of an old brand to generate interest in their new brand. Along with the old stuff, they were featuring amazing ticket packages to this year’s games along with information about a youth skills camp. All the while my 4 year -old played tag with Al the Almond. Great job by Scott Hoard who is absolutely everywhere for this franchise.
Nasco Modesto is another local business that attended the “Garage Sale.” They brought out a timely selection of crafts and supplies geared toward the upcoming summer season, where the focus of youth education supplies focuses more on arts and crafts and a little less so on arithmetic.
The Ladies of Nasco Modesto (twitter: @nascomodesto)
Another exciting connection I made was on my way out of the Downey Garage Sale. I met Cynthia of Color Me Mine, a place to create do-it-yourself pottery and other objects. I remember taking my wife to a place like this when we were dating, so I was very interested in talking to her. Knowing what her business offers, I talked to Cynthia briefly about using Social Media to promote and grow her business, and she sounded very amenable to it, so we agreed to talk more soon. I am so excited to work with her.
From Downey, we went downtown to the Modesto Farmers Market. This is a great place to showcase what is local for many reasons. There are certified organic booths, as well as inorganic varieties of food available. It is a great community gathering spot. I was also fortunate enough to run into the folks from Friends of Modesto Library as well. We are working on a project together, and I hope to help them through their tough times.
After all this Modesto fun, we stopped back at home to let our doggies run free for a bit, then it was on to The Taste of Turlock, something a friend of mine, @alexisdias told me about. There was all kinds of good stuff going around!
We did indeed run into Alexis, who happened to be combining a community outing with taking the opportunity to socialize a beautiful pit bull she is fostering for @kindredcanines. This is the synergy of community is all about. All sorts of connections, big and small being made, all for the sake of improving our communities. It’s going on in Modesto and Turlock. But we aren’t done yet! This epic Saturday continues…In Stockton!
We headed back to Modesto for more doggy exercise time. Then we hit the road for some minor league baseball! My son and I headed up 99 to Stockton to see the Stockton Ports play the Bakersfield Blaze at beautiful Banner Island ballpark. I am by all rights an A’s fan when it comes to California baseball, and I do love my hometown Modesto Nuts, who play in the same California League as the Ports. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a wonderful night at the game. The team was giving away bobble heads, so there was automatically something for the kids, but luckily, my pal @rjvillagomez who works for the Ports, saw us, and selected Jordan to yell “PLAY BALL!” before the game. He gladly obliged. The Ports in my mind, along with the Nuts understand that while they employ professional athletes, they are indeed a small business that is seeking connections with their fan bases. @modestonuts and @stocktonports are both worthy of following.
Jordan enjoying The Ports game!
At 10:30PM, we headed back to Modesto, exhausted from an amazing day all over the Central Valley. My son only needed a half hour nap to get through it all, and enjoyed himself at every stop. A great father/son day and lots of awesome connections were made! Look for more of this from this outpost very soon. We are on a mission to highlight what local people are doing to make our communities a better place.
