Today is International Pillow Day. I only know because I see the story about it on ABC News online in Australia. It’s also called International Pillow Fight Day.
From the International Awareness day website:
“I couldn't believe it when I heard ... that yes, International Pillow Fight Day really will be taking place!
The Urban Playground Movement has described public spaces in our cities as 'public living rooms'. Or I suppose, in this case, it would be bedrooms!
Lots of places around the world have had great fun getting involved with pillow fight day. See some absolutely fantastic pictures of the day taking place around the world - from Amsterdam, Budapest, to New York.
The basic idea is to get every major city in the world involved in this organised event! Flashmobs like this are getting more and more common, and I think its a great way to let loose amidst our often stressful working weeks!”
On the same site I searched “International Volunteer Managers Day”
I got the result “Sorry, no matches were found containing International Volunteer Managers Day”
So I googled “International Volunteers manager day” and I got 11,900 results. Not bad!
But when I googled “International Pillow Fight day” I got 392,000 hits! Just a difference of 380,000 or so!
Obviously IVMD needs more traction. More publicity. So here’s my suggestion. On November 5 we have an international collaboration where volunteer managers engage in a massive international pillow fight. We coordinate an event where we are pictured smashing each other or ourselves with pillows through social media. When people ask us why we say that we are unashamedly stealing another idea this year because we believe that IVMD deserves more attention. And as everyone else criticizes us for being unoriginal we gain some attention for our sector and for volunteerism!
That’s the start of getting some attention on IVMD. Then we look at ways of making the day more appealing. I love IVMD and have always supported the concept. But it needs to become more social media savvy! Because that’s the world we live in now.
I’m ready to play my part with a pillow on the next IVMD. But maybe beforehand we can come up with some stunt that we can call our own!
It just goes to prove DJ that 'fluffy' news gets more attention than a profession that makes real change
ReplyDeleteLet's see what we can all do to change this as time goes on
Andy Fryar
Chair - IVMDay International Committee