Accomplishments thread

[jerseydevil]

Right now a lot of stuff is being accomplished so far. First - I'm the new treasurer of Princeton Battlefield Area Preservation Society

Recently - I did the website for Crossroads of the American Revolution Association I am also a panelist on Thursday for the first meeting to plan out Celebrate New Jersey Day. I've had to prepare a speech for this.

Right now this is what I have for the speech...

Over 300 years ago William Penn felt it necessary to stand up against the critics of New Jersey by saying, “That there is such a province as New Jersey, is certain…and it is not right in any to despise or dispraise it…”

170 years later, in 1846, Bishop George Washington Doane, son of the builder of the first NJ state house, declared “We have well nigh forgotten that we have a history. We have almost lost the very sense of our identity. We have no center. We have made no rally.” Now, 158 years later, we are here to make that rally.

Today we fight against and for over 300 years of long history. Against, because we have long sat in the shadow between Philadelphia and New York, never getting the recognition we so richly deserve. We fight for our history, because it is something to be proud of. States throughout the country would die to have the history that is contained in these 7,000+ square miles, yet we as a people do not celebrate it.

I have lived in 6 states and traveled to 34 others, I know the pride that the other states enjoy. It is time for New Jersey to take its rightful place and stand tall with similar pride. This has been my goal for the past 6 years when I first realized that the distain for New Jersey is not just from New York, but actually extends coast to coast as well as encountering it from people over seas and in Canada. It was because of the questions such as, “does New Jersey have any trees?” or “you mean Joisey?”, not to mention “Isn’t New Jersey just part of New York?” that brought out my love for this state and made me decide to develop my website. Through AboutNewJersey.com, my goal is to show people all that New Jersey has to offer and to do my part to bring pride to this under appreciated state.

My friends around the world, from Canada, to Sweden, Israel to Australia – know about my love for NJ, sometimes through the computer I can feel their eyes rolling and saying “not again”. But through sharing with them the history, my photos, the many things I do, and the numerous NJ postcards I send them I have now gotten them all to want to visit here.

To change the way the outside views New Jersey, we must first change the way the citizens of New Jersey feel about their own home state. All New Jerseyans must be encouraged to be ambassadors of the state, instead of just blindly accepting the negative comments and stereotypes. This is where the importance of “Celebrate New Jersey” Day is - to showcase the state to its citizens who take so much of it for granted. It’s going to be a long road and it won’t be easy, but with hard work and dedication, I know we can succeed.

Marguerite would like me to add a bit more about me and what I have done for NJ. I hate talking about me - it's much easier to talk about New Jersey or someone else.

I also have made t-shirts which I will be selling -


In addition I have made a postcard (some of you have received it and know who you are ) that I will be selling and using as marketing purposes...


Front


Back


I am also working with the Russian Yellow Pages of New Jersey on their NJ tourist attraction section (I made contact with them after the Beslan School attack). In exchange for my help - they've made me the official NJ tourist website of the telephone book and are giving me the first page of the tourist section for a full page ad. The ad so far looks like this...



Finally the latest thing today is with MoscowHelp.org - which is also associated with the Russian Yellow Pages. In September I offered to help them in planning trips if they had any students from the Beslan School coming out here. Today I received the following e-mail from Oksana -

Bob,

You offered your help back in September with organizing activities for kids who would come over for medical treatment.

Just wanted to let you know that we (the Foundation) are helping to bring over a 10-year old girl from Beslan to the US for an eye implant.
She is coming here with her 7-year old sister (who was also in the school and had a broken leg and minor burns, as far as I understand), dad and grandma (her mom was killed in the attack).
The family is coming over at the end of October and will stay here till mid-December.
They will be staying with a family in New York City.

Do you think you will be able to organize some sort of activities / entertainment for the kids?

Oksana

So - this afternoon I was calling my various contacts and checking to see if they would be willing to organize and donate some tickets and events for them. I've contacted children's museums, theaters, the Nets, Atlantic City, ski resorts and others. Hoping I can make their stay here enjoyable under the circumstances. I don't have many details yet, so I'm still waiting for information from Oksana - but I just want to see how many people woudl be willing to help and getting an idea of some of things I might be able to put together for them. I would have them go to a devils game - but with the damn NHL strike - it sucks.

So I guess I've been accomplishing a lot and my website and business plans are moving forward - now all I need to do is start making some money (that'll be a BIG accomplishment )

This is the main reason I am not on Entmoot as much - also - there is only so much I can go around in circles on the political threads.