Career Day with SAHS

Last week Ayers Promotions participated in the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce (IVC of C) annual Career Day. Students from Souderton Area High School had signed up to shadow and learn about local businesses and careers that interest them for their future career.

We had the pleasure of meeting and spending the day with two young gentlemen who were interested in graphic design. Graphic design is a very intricate part to our promotional product and apparel business, so it was a "no brainer" for them to come visit us!

During the course of our day we explained the basic operation of our business and in more detail how graphic design plays a huge role in our daily activity. We then sat them down and asked them to draw their own Souderton High School T-shirt. They came up with their own unique and creative design on paper, and then when they were done we asked them to then create it on the screen! After a little assistance from us, they designed their very own Souderton T-shirt using our Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) software.

These two students passed with FLYING colors! We were so impressed with their creativity, we immediately sent the designs to the SAHS School Store coordinator to view. (The SAHS School Store sells apparel and products decorated with Souderton logos for students to purchase and show their school spirit! Ayers Promotions provides these designs and goods for them to sell throughout the school year.) We were then asked to print T-shirts with the designs they created to sell in the SAHS School Store for all students to buy! Talk about a day well spent for these students! They will actually be able to wear their very own design!!

We were so happy with the sucess of this day, we will be partaking in Career Day for years to come! Thank you to the Chamber for letting us be a part of this fantastic day!

"GO GREEN" EARTH DAY SPECIAL

DID YOU KNOW.... the annual cost to US Retailers for paper and plastic bags is estimated at $4 BILLION?

Where do they come up with the money for that? Right out of YOUR pockets in the form of higher prices!

Reusable Shopping Bags are the ANSWER!

- SAVE the environment
- Get your name seen time and time again
- Instill good will with a useful product
- Increase brand-favor with end users. (53% of end-users have a MORE favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving a bag.)

APRIL SPECIAL: Place an order for select reusable shopping bags and receive END column pricing!

EARTH DAY SPECIAL: Place an order for select bags of 200 pieces or more by April 22, 2009 and get pricing even BETTER then END column pricing!!

See more specials of the month online at www.ayerspromotions.com or call us today at 215.822.2366

*Normal set up and shipping charges apply.

Ecuadent 2009

The Blogger has recently returned from Ecuador and wanted to post a blog to let you all know how the trip went. First, with the help of many friends, family, customers and suppliers, I more than doubled my goal for contributions to Ecuadent. Thank you very much. I appreciate your help and generosity and, I'm sure I can say that Ecuadent appreciates it as well. For more info on Ecuadent see www.ecuadent.org. As for the trip, during the 5 days that we were working, we saw more than 1000 kids. We treated 926 of them during our long, sometimes 10-12 hour days. Not only was it a lot of work, it was also an eye opening experience. The level of poverty was something that I will never forget. There were houses with dirt floors, no windows or doors, no running water, etc., etc. We Americans don't realize how good we have it. I am guilty of that as well but, the best part of the trip was hanging with the kids. Although I went there with the understanding that I would be doing sterilization, my job description shifted when the sterilization dude from the previous year showed up. It was a relief for me and very welcome as I wanted to be with the kids. I became known as the "clown doctor". Because I had to wear scrubs, the kids thought I was a doctor too. The clown part comes from the fact that I was juggling, yo-yo'ing and generally being goofy. My job was to get the kids in, get them through triage and then get them to the rooms where they needed to be. As I told the others, I had the best job there. I fought and got beat up by boys with inflatable batons, I danced the girls to their seats and taught a bunch of Ecuadorian kids how to yo-yo. It was awesome!! It was undoubtedly the most personally rewarding thing I have ever done. What I saw and experienced, would cause even the hardest of men to melt. One kid with cerebral palsy came in and I had to carry him off the bus and then from station to station. He came with a dilapidated wheelchair and when we brought in a new one for him, his mom cried, I cried, heck I think everyone was crying at one point or another. It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it. If you haven't volunteered your time, I would encourage you to do so. We all have skills that can be passed and taught to others and, I guarantee, it will definitely be rewarding and surely will put a smile on your face as well as those you are passing it to. I can't wait to go back next year.
-Rob

Ayers Promotions is "Going Green" in 2009!

With the start of 2009, Ayers Promotions has decided to join the revolution and focus our efforts on "GOING GREEN". We are committed to energy conservation and to the reduction of waste. Throughout the year, we will be promoting many of our eco-friendly, green promotional products in hopes that you join with us in this ever so important subject! Each month, stay tuned for our featured "GO GREEN" product. For the month of February, our "GO GREEN" product is reusable water bottles.

Check out this website, we found it's cold hard facts enough of a dose to shock anyone into seeing why "GOING GREEN" is so important! WEBECOIST

Taking a Blogging Break

Hey y'all,
For those of you who don't know it, I am outta here on Wednesday to head to Ecuador, South America to take part in a dental/medical mission with Ecuadent (for more info see http://www.ecuadent.org/). I am very much looking forward to this adventure and to helping out the team in any way that I can. To those of you that contributed and helped me more than double my goal, I thank you for your extreme generosity. For those of you that still wish to donate on my behalf, or not even, you can do it through their website and can also get the address from the site as well. In order to prepare, last week I underwent extensive training (OK, maybe it wasn't so extensive) so that I can do the sterilization process while I am there. I'd also like to thank the staff at Weaver, Reckner, Reinhart in Souderton for their time in training me as well as the donations that they so graciously passed on to me. When in Ecuador, we will be heading to the province of Esmeraldes and expect to see, in total, around 800+ kids while we are there. Cleft pallet and other dental issues are prevalent due to the lack of fluoride and access to all we have here in the states. I am sure that it will be a rewarding and definitely, eye opening experience. On a different note, Ayers Promotions is continuing our push to Go Green!! If you've seen my previous blog, Go Green, you have read some interesting things about just one issue facing us, plastic water bottles. Well now we are taking steps to go to the next level and beyond. Our marketing department has come up with some things that we will be implementing here at the showroom so that we are doing our part and has also come up with a plan to raise awareness so that we can all do our part for the good of the whole. Keep a look out for the next AP blog and expect for me to be taking a blogging break while I am away. I will be sure to blog about the trip when I return. The best to you all.
-Rob

Vegas

Oh well, back from Sin City and, as Shaboy said, "It's cold and the Eagles are losing; it's good to be back in Philly." I concur. As for the big show, it was big. Many new products-especially in the eco friendly lines. Biodegradable, recycled, reusable, environmentally safe, etc. were this year's buzz words. We've all seen apparel, bags, water bottles and the like but now there are pens that break down faster, plastic bags that degrade into pixie dust and much, much more. On the apparel side, many exciting opportunities arose as we met with a bunch of our "preferred guys" and worked on getting and doing some things that will help us all in these economic times i.e. special pricing tiers, specials on set-ups and shipping and much more. Many suppliers have also expanded their lines and there are many new digs to choose from. Be sure to contact your AP rep to get the newest catalogs in your hands. As is always the case in Vegas, there was fun to be found. We were treated to a fabulous dinner and were wined and dined while we were there. It was good to be the king but now, we're back home and I'm working like a slave again. 2 more weeks and then I am off to Ecuador-véale pronto ("see you soon"-I think-mi espanol not so good)
-Rob

Go Green

And, despite recent events, this is not going to lead into an Eagles chant-Oh, what the heck: E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!! But seriously, this is about the planet and not our Boys on Broad Street (although they are the most green-eco friendly-team in the NFL). We've all heard it-Global Warming, Green house affect, polluting the planet and our atmosphere, etc., etc. But, I am only going to mention 1 topic: Bottled water. Bottled water is being consumed at a ridiculous pace-according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consumed 31.2 BILLION liters of water in 2006. Also, according to the Pacific Institute's fact sheet [PDF], the production of the bottles alone required 17 million barrels of oil and this figure does not include any transportation. The real crazy number is that it required 3 times the amount of water that actually went into the bottles!! Wow. What are we thinking? So, once these babies are pounded down, where do they go? Well, it's already an important question and one that may get real interesting in the near future when we start running out of landfills. So, what can you do? Invest in some reusable water bottles. The latest scare on plastic and polycarbonates has been addressed and many now are BPA free (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A). Just remember, it all starts with us and, if we can all make small changes, it will surely add to the big picture. What kind of planet do you want to leave behind???
-Rob