Many thanks to Bonnie and all the great folks at Nimnicht Chevrolet on Cassat Avenue for setting up receptacles and collecting bottles from their team. You guys rock!
Last week we broke the 2000 bottle mark, yay! The entries from Oakleaf Elementary and Atlantic Coast High School put us over the top. Many thanks to Lori Wong, our dear friend from Hawaii (and fellow Cornell alum), who was visiting and found the time to be the office message-entry person for the past two weeks (in addition to bottle processor and label remover). Thanks Lori for all your help. Yes we are nuts to have bottles ALL over the house. One day it will be normal again!
There’s a great group of students at Atlantic Coast who not only collected hundreds of bottles for the project but also embellished several bottle receptacles for our library drop off locations. Many thanks to their teacher, Kelly Delaney, who graciously involved her classes in our project. Go Stingrays!
Art Walk was quiet last night due to a front blowing through town late in the day. I think people in Jacksonville get scared of a little rain and wind. The evening actually turned out to be pleasant and by 6:00 the rain had stopped. We had tables set up at Studio 121, The Art Center, and MOCA. It turned out that MOCA took the award for being the “happening” place for the night. Sally Parsons and her daughter Sara were busy and collected over 100 bottles. Sally and Sara are “Super Messengers” and we are thankful for their time manning the table. Look for them again next month.
Message in a Bottle was prominently featured in the December Arbus Magazine. Many thanks to Cinda Sherman, a great supporter of the arts in Jacksonville. We hope to get the word out to more people and rally support for the project. If you haven’t seen this issue, or if you are not an Arbus “fan,” run out and get a copy, there free! I have a bunch at the studio and they are available all over town. One of the best art-related publications in town.
We made the front page of the Metro section of today’s paper. What a nice surprise. We are making steady progress and more meetings are planned to increase the number of Messengers. Dorian and Lori collected empty bottles on Thanksgiving at the half marathon. Never can have too many empty bottles on hand. We are grateful for the excitement and support from many people in the community who are helping out. December will be a critical month for collection. If you are reading this and can help, please step up and let us know who you are. We need you!
We finally made it over 1000 bottles thanks to Ms. Hogan and the great kids at Mandarin Middle School. It took almost 18 days to get this far. Things seem to be getting off to a slow start but we are building momentum. Dorian was at the Haskell Company during lunch time this week explaining the project. We are encouraged with the reception at the schools and the support of the teachers. This week is Thanksgiving and we all have much to be thankful for. Since this project is about gratitude, I hope that all of us have a chance to slow down for a moment to reflect on what we are thankful for.
Today I was on Melissa Ross’ First Coast Connect radio broadcast. I have to admit that I was very nervous going into this and didn’t get much sleep. But it turned out just fine and actually Melissa made it a fun experience. I was thoroughly impressed by the way she conducted her interview and her ability to make everything flow so smoothly. Everything is live (with a 3 second delay) which means you have to think fast. If you want to hear the broadcast, you need to search the archives on the First Coast Connect archives page for 11/14/11 (this will take you to the shows in iTunes). My segment is approximately 42:26 into the interview. I asked Melissa after we finished to write a message and she gladly obliged. Thanks Melissa and WJCT for allowing me to be part of your broadcast.
Here’s a new movie filmed, produced, and directed by Dorian. It takes place at MOSH during the Veteran’s Day activities. So guys and gals, did you do a bottle yet?
Today Veteran’s Day took on a new meaning for me. I came to realize the widespread support of our veteran’s and the importance of awareness in the success of our project. There are many groups out there ready and willing to help, we just have to find them. Dorian set up a table at MOSH (Jacksonville’s excellent Museum of Science and History) where she talked to many people who were downtown for the parade and other Veteran’s Day festivities. She made a lot of contacts and gathered 119 messages. We always bring a supply of empty bottles to these events, and everyone is eager to write their 5 words. Dorian also had a great idea to record many of the people saying, “here’s my bottle” as they handed her their completed messages in a bottle. We are putting all of these together into a new video. We will be contacting the interested people right away to start moving the word out into the community. It may take a while for us to gain some momentum but I can feel it building.
