SPACEBALLS - the lunch box!

 In one of my all time favorites, Mel Brooks' character Yogurt invites the heroes into his pop up store and exclaims, "Merchandising! Merchandising! Merchandising!" From that moment forward I've wanted a Spaceballs Lunchbox but word on the street is that George Lucas allowed the spoof of his Star Wars series under a few conditions. One of those conditions was that he forbid the production and sale of any figures, characters and other whatnot. That meant - No Merch.

About the time I hit the Northwest Arctic in 2015, a new fad in education was sweeping the nation. Every school from Greenbow, Alabama to Selawik Alaska was "Branding". District leadership across the country must have all attended the same lecture or read the same research that said the way to create interest in education was to adopt a Slogan or to have a Catch Phrase. Schools couldn't get their own acronym fast enough. It wasn't enough to rep your school colors anymore. Logos and Mascots were part of this re-branding. Mugs. T-shirts. Backpacks and about anything you could think of publicized the Brand  and somewhere at the heart of it was another source of income and revenue from unnecessary merch.

When the Selawik Wolves became Selawik STRONG - the Tigers of Rush City were just discovering their ROAR. Right alongside shiny new bumper stickers and fancy scoreboards emblazoned with the Brand, public education decided that it was time to have MISSION STATEMENTS. From my understanding, a mission statement was commonplace in the private sector. Driving the company towards profitability with a single declaration of purpose seemed at place in the dog eat dog world of capitalism. When Mission Statements popped up in education, I felt the same way that I did with the onslaught of merchandising and branding. All seemed unnecessary. 

Isn't the motivation for education implied?

I watched as money was spent on signage and slogans that didn't effectively change to ART of teaching. It seemed wasteful but I toed the company line. When the athletic department followed suit, I created my own purpose statement as to why I was a Transformational Coach rather than a transactional one. 

"I coach to encourage honor, respect, integrity and giving for all of our student athletes." - put it on a Tshirt, Mel Brooks.

Stick with me here....Merchandising, Branding, Selling a Product, Mission and Purpose Statements - all point back to one simple question in my mind. 

WHY?

Why do this? Like I said before, I thought the purpose of education could be implied without some great pronouncement.

But.....

Why do I BLOG?    (a Ha!)

What is my purpose statement for this here Kirby Krew? Do we need a re-branding? Are we the Brand?

When my all knowing wife kicked off this little page I think it was our intention to keep family posted on the happenings of our growing household. We had kin spread out from the north border to the hills of Tennessee. Heck, the snowbirds were spending more and more time in Florida and the blog was a way to share a look into our lives. 

It took a hold and grew. More pictures and more stories were added. It became a digital journal and a way for Michele and I to chronicle to stories of raising a family together. It was and is the precursor to our own little Facebook Memories.

In time, it became a creative outlet for me to tap away on the keyboard and throw a few thoughts down. I found it very therapeutic to write about the few things that run through my pea brain. Our audience grew a bit when I took off for the Arctic. As time pressed on as it always does - I wondered WHY I still Blog?

And then...

Emma will chime in somewhere that she got caught in the rabbit hole of clicking through old stories. When my daughter sends me a random text, laughing about re-reading a story that she's read and heard a hundred times it fuels me. It reminds us why we did this....

Our Kirby Krew Mission Statement:

"I Blog (v) to chronicle and categorize the life and times of our wonderful family. To put digital pen to paper so that one day we can look back and smile at all the fun we had."

Kirby Krew - "the Flamethrower!"

Merchandising. Merchandising! .... sell the Brand.

Turns out Mel Brooks made the movie because he wanted to make a movie - not sell stuff. I write on the blog because I want to write - although I am very proud of our Brand, I aint selling ya anything. 

nd