The Duck Wall of Fame

Yesterday I had a party.  It was an open house for the pool store I manage, to celebrate 32 years in business.  I invited all of our customers, who didn't come, as well as my colleagues from the Cocoa Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, who came in droves to eat, drink, and help me be merry.  What made the event extraordinary, however, were the hundreds of little yellow rubber duckies that helped to promote this event. 

I didn't come up with the idea for the Duck Wall of Fame all at once; it kind of evolved over time.  Originally, I had planned to deliver ducks to homes in particular neighborhoods where I would like to capture the swimming pool maintenance market.  I was going to put a little yellow duck on everyone's doorstep, along with a flyer.  Then I realized how annoying that would be.  Cocoa Beach is a small town; if these people wanted to buy my services they would already be here, buying.  The one thing I've learned as a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador is that you don't get new business by pestering people to buy your stuff; you get new business by referrals from other business owners who know and respect you enough to tell their customers about you.

So instead, I put stickers on the back of my business cards and attached them to the necks of all those ducks, and passed them out at Chamber events as party invitations.  Soon everyone had a duck, wanted a duck, was talking about ducks, making duck jokes, and wishing they had a duck idea of their own.    I also talked about ducks on Facebook.  It is amazing how many people really like rubber duckies!  So many of my Facebook friends wanted ducks that I ended up mailing them all over the world.  To justify the expense to my employer, I had everyone who received a duck send me a picture.  It occurred to me that if I had pictures of my ducks from all over the world, I would be able to claim that my little neighborhood business was known world-wide. On the day of the party, I printed out all the pictures I've received so far and hung them on the Duck Wall of Fame.  I had been talking about this wall for so long that many people actually came to the party just to see the ducks! 

If the ducks had been merely a clever marketing tactic, I would not be talking about them here on The New Book of Clues.  What really happened with the ducks that made them so special is that they became a symbol around which new relationships could grow.  All relationships are built upon mutually shared experiences, and are nourished by intimacy.  I learned years ago that the best way to get a group of people to bond and to think of themselves as a cohesive group instead of just a collection of people, is to have them work together toward a common goal.  The ducks provided that opportunity.

Through the Attitude of Gratitude Project on Facebook, I have had the opportunity to make friends with people from all over the world.  We have been sharing the intimate details of our lives through our status updates, so we had the intimacy part down.  The duck project gave us the mutually shared experience that we needed to really cement those new relationships.  By the time the party finally happened, the ducks had captured the hearts and minds of hundreds of people.  Not all of them could be there in person, but they were all there in spirit.  The ducks helped everyone to feel like they were part of the event, and I received well-wishes from around the globe.  Even people who did not actively participate in the Big Duck Out had heard of the project, and were rooting for the ducks.

The event itself was steeped in love and gratitude.  The Italian restaurant next door, Anacapri, catered the event.   We had an enormous amount of food, and way more frosty refreshments than we could consume.  O'Cha Thai, the new restaurant next door, surprised me by decorating the sidewalk out front.  They brought over beautifully dressed tables covered with scrumptious Thai finger foods, a stunning vase filled with cut flowers, and they brought all the plants from in front of their own restaurant so that the pool store would be beautiful.  I was so overcome with this act of neighborly love that I actually cried when I saw what they were doing.

I wish I had the space here to individually thank everyone who came out to help and to celebrate.  Brian Hersom, the Boss-Shaped Creature, was a very gracious and generous host, and the pool store staff worked hard to pretty up the store for the event.  My friend Robyn Greene of Blue Sky Insurance baked cookies and sold 50/50 raffle tickets to benefit the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra.  Debbie Huff of Silpada Designs Jewelry showed up early to help manage the door prizes.  Lee Romano, the world famous Captain Music, brought over a PA system so that we could have sound out in the parking lot.  Ed Avery, better known as Pastor Duck, even stopped by to perform with his duck puppet.  How perfect was that?  John Trudeau of Dream Team Events, was our photographer, and Steven Causey of Event Videography filmed the event.  I can't wait to see what they captured on film.  I was too busy hosting to take my own pictures, so I appreciate that they volunteered their talents for this event.  Finally, to all of the people who stopped by, phoned in, or were simply there in spirit, I thank you most sincerely for all your love and support. 

This event reinforced many of the lessons that I've learned over the past year:  Love breeds love.  Gratitude breeds many more things for which to be grateful.  Being a good neighbor encourages your neighbors to be neighborly.  Everything is more fun with little yellow rubber duckies.  Thanks to the ducks and to the imaginations of people I only know through the magic of the internet, I can now say that I work for Ashley's Pool & Irrigation, home of the Duck Wall of Fame.  We are your internationally famous neighborhood pool store.  Kind of rolls off the tongue doesn't it?  Like water off a duck's back!

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