StockPins Blog

Windows Vista has a new feature that’s pretty cool called “Gadgets”   Gadgets are small programs that run on your desktop.  You can find gadgets for all sorts of interests.   Including – Awareness events.

That’s right – Stockpins has designed our own Gadget that you can download for free!  The Awareness Gadget allows you to keep up to date on all the awareness events going on around the world.  It’ll tell you what’s going on right now and let you scroll through upcoming events.  Wondering what’s up next month??  – just scroll ahead to find out that April is Parkinson’s Awareness month in Canada and Autism Awareness Month in the US.  It also shows the awareness pins and has information about each event and links to the sponsoring group for each event. 

We will be updating the events continually - so if you know of an event please email us the details.   

This was way too funny to pass up! While doing a bit of online research for our awareness month section – I came across this Pee Ball campaign from The Prostate Charity in the UK.

Designed by Sweetapple, Peeball is an innovative, award winning game aimed at raising awareness about prostate cancer in a light-hearted way. All the player needs is a Peeball, a urinal and the need to pee. After removing the Peeball from its box, the player places it in the urinal, takes aim and attempts to destroy the Peeball in the shortest possible time. It is not a diagnostic tool to test for prostate cancer, however difficulty passing urine whilst playing the game may indicate a prostate or urinary problem.

Now I know as well as anyone that cancer is no laughing matter – but it’s great to see a light hearted approach to raising awareness.  Plus – it’s bound to improve your aim!

Hi my name is Pinonda and Im a Podcastaholic. Yes – i admit it i’m totally addicted to podcasts. I listen to them at the gym, walking the dog and during my daily commute. Over the weekend I was listening to one of my favorites – Dishymix. It’s a podcast by Susan Bratton (of Ad:Tech fame) where she interviews various figures in the internet / web 2.0 world and talks about what makes them tick.

She was talking to David Scott Carlick a VC who among other things funded Myspace - and they were discussing the way he’s developed a certain look that people have come to know him by. He wears a black mock turtleneck and a blazer with (drumroll please….) a lapel pin.

They talked about how and why he wears them and I was so psyched because here is a guy who totally gets it! He says (i’ll paraphrase) that he started off wearing a pin with an actual fish that was embedded in plastic. He noticed that it would break the ice with people and made him more approachable. “I Found that a gray haired guy with a dead fish on his lapel was so approachable that it made my life more interesting” People would come up to him and say “what’s up with the fish?” From there he started collecting pins and basically has one for every jacket he wears.

That’s exactly the effect that pins have that makes them so much fun. And that’s what Im trying to capture in this blog. Stockpins customers have tons of great stories like that to tell and it’s fun to hear one of the big dogs acknowledge the role lapel pins can play in connecting people.

We did a little re-organization to the store this week.  We’ve added a section called Awareness Months where we’ll list the various Awareness events around the world that are scheduled for each month.  Included are both awareness months, week long events and awareness days.   We’re also including links to the organizations that sponsor / support the various causes to help our readers find more information.   So for example March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in the US.  March is also Ovarian Cancer month in the UK and MS Awareness month in the US.   Now you can plan your activities in advance and know about events on the horizon.

 We’re working to update the various events so if you see anything that we’ve missed or if we hvae it wrong, please email me and we’ll get it fixed right away. 

We sell tons of Shovel pins. The typical story is that people use them for ground breaking ceremonies and will hand them out to all the folks in attendance. Pretty typical stuff. So when Donna S called up yesterday to order shovel pins – I figured it was another groundbreaking somewhere. Boy was I shocked.

Turns out that Donna is involved with a Bible study group at the Cross Roads Church. They call themselves “The Grave Robbers”

Our Friday night Bible Study Group is called “Grave Robbers.”  We wanted a lapel pin that would represent the name of our group, plus be a fashion statement with our attire.  We were so pleased to find the gold shovel lapel pin on your web site.  Not only was it the perfect item, but it is great quality at a good price.  Attached is a photo of our group wearing the pins.  As an added bonus, I put them into a tiny coffin box to set the theme.  Thank you for your good service and your speedy delivery.  We look forward to doing business with you again. 

Wishing you God’s Blessing,

Donna Sheehy
Crossroads Community Church
Cincinnati, Ohio

 

Sounds like they’re a pretty fun group. Donna says that their meetings have been know to go into the wee hours. I don’t think I could keep up with you guys!! Thanks for sharing Donna!