Archive for September, 2012
Quirky Voice Apps and Web Services
Quirky Voice App: Bad Date Rescue
We often write about families, traditions and holidays associated with VoiceQuilt toasts and tributes. Today, however, we’d love to share some quirky voice apps and web services. These apps aren’t sentimental at all. They just make us smile.
* The Bad Date Rescue app triggers a phony emergency phone call to your cell phone for blind dates. Before going out, you set up the voice app to call you within a specified period of time (typically 5-10 minutes). That way, you can decide whether to pretend that the phone call forces you to leave the date because of an emergency. Ironically enough, the app was produced by eHarmony, the online dating service.
* Rejection Hotline, also inspired by online dating, takes another angle. If someone asks for your phone number, you can give him or her a Rejection Hotline phone number. Upon dialing this number, your suitor will hear a “humorous” message that makes it clear that you have no intention of sharing your real phone number – ever.
* Mywakeupcall is NOT in the dating arena. Instead, this voice message service does what a hotel wake-up call would do – with a twist. Robyn Palmer, a former Broadway actress, has recorded a variety of inspirational messages. You’ll be woken each day with a different positive message . Since the brain is highly suggestible upon awaking, Robyn contends that her inspirational messages will improve your life.
All of these voice message apps and web services focus on the phone’s ability to interrupt – rather than connect. At VoiceQuilt, we embrace the phone because it makes it easy for everyone to record a voice message toast, tribute or favorite memory. We believe that voices convey presence and emotion better than images or or the written word. Plus, your VoiceQuilt recipient is never interrupted. He or she can listen to the voice messages whenever – or wherever – they want. No interruption…only connection…and maybe a few happy tears.
National Courtesy Month, World Gratitude Day and The Ripple Effect
“Back in the Day” Courtesy was everywhere
September is National Courtesy Month and it’s a wonderful time to be reminded of how much kindness means to people. Our friend Mary O’Donohue, author and courtesy advocate, has a new project perfect for National Courtesy Month called “Your Ripple Effect.” It provides a way for folks to post kind acts on her website, creating a ripple effect for kindness and courtesy.
Mary shared this with us: “I’m a big proponent of courtesy, respect and compassion. I believe we all have an opportunity to create a ripple effect with our lives by doing whatever good we can in the world.” To share your ideas for adding to the ripple effect, visit Mary’s web site.
September 21 was World Gratitude Day and the etiquette experts suggest that we show our gratitude by sending thank you notes. January is a popular time for thank you notes since it follows the holidays, but there’s no etiquette rule that says you can’t say thank you all through the year. In fact, an important courtesy you can show to a friend is to say thank for no reason at all. Maybe you’re thankful he or she was there for you through a tough time.
Many VoiceQuilts are created as thank you’s. Sometimes, it’s a group of students thanking a teacher. More often, it’s a mix of family and friends, expressing their gratitude on a birthday. Sometimes an entire community will band together to express their thanks. Last winter, Atlanta-area politicians, sports celebrities and families thanked the troops for their service during the Christmas season.
National Courtesy Month might be drawing to a close, but there’s still plenty of time to show kindness. Who knows? A small act of kindness – in the form of a thank you or an act of courtesy – might take on a life of its own.
Random Acts of Kindness and World Gratitude Day
World Gratitude Day is September 21. I started thinking… “How do people show gratitude to others?” I’ve been a fan of a Facebook Page Random Acts of Kindness for quite some time. How better than to show gratitude to the universe than by performing Random Acts of Kindness to those who help us and even to those we don’t even know (yet or maybe even never)? Have you ever had the person in front of you in the Starbucks drive-through line buy your coffee? I have — it was such an amazing surprise and made me smile all day.
And while browsing Pinterest, I found this extremely inspiring blog how a mother spent her 37th birthday showing gratitude to her postman, lunch server and others. She started this tradition on her 35th birthday two years ago and plans to do it annually. She performed over 37 random acts of kindness and good deeds this year in one day – one for each year of her life. What an inspiring lady!
If you ever need a pick-me-up, search on hashtag #randomactsofkindness. Tweeters around the world post ways that others have touched them with good deeds. My favorite was a tweet about New Yorkers helping an unlucky reader retrieve 30 pages of reading papers blowing in the wind! You can also search on #dokindness to see how others have been helped because of others performing random acts of kindness.
VoiceQuilt Gift givers are naturals at showing gratitude. The SUNY Cortland Softball team made a “Thank You” VoiceQuilt for their coach; a group of San Diego Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk participants created a quilt of gratitude for their retiring trainer. There are many other heartwarming stories here.
So, why not use World Gratitude Day as an excuse to perform a random act of kindness this week? And, while you’re at it, please let us know about it by commenting here or on VoiceQuilt’s facebook page. We’d love to hear all about it!
Changing Seasons And The End Of Life
September is well underway and September 22, 2012 brings the Autumnal Equinox or first official day of fall. With the changing of seasons, we often find ourselves reflecting on the seasons in life and how each brings different joys and challenges. While it’s always hard to come to terms with our loved ones nearing the end of their lives, we believe that acknowledging this milestone is critical.
Finding gifts appropriate for someone at the end of life can prove to be difficult, as one member of the site Caring.com demonstrated when she asked for suggestions of best gifts for a dying parent. The suggestions aren’t specifically gifts for cancer patients or other particular illnesses, but would serve as ways to honor your loved one facing the end of his or her life.
One gift idea for someone nearing the end of life is to recreate a special memory or event in your loved one’s life – such as their wedding day or a favorite trip. Maybe your loved one has special memories about visiting Paris and recreating that experience could be a comfort.
Another idea, as described on Caring.com, was when a caregiver asked 93 friends and family members to send her ailing mother cards for her 93rd birthday. These sweet sentiments were greatly appreciated by the patient, who was bed-ridden and unable to have visitors.
One VoiceQuilt gift giver, Becca, created a special VoiceQuilt for her mother who was suffering from stage IV cancer. Many families have found that creating end of life VoiceQuilts as gifts for cancer patients and those suffering from other illnesses have brought great comfort to their loved ones.
No matter how you celebrate your loved ones as they near the end of their lives, we hope you will honor them with the gift of your time and compassion. As we make this transition from summer into fall, it’s important to remember that life brings different seasons and we must always remember what is most important.
A VoiceQuilt Time Capsule: Children’s Voices Change!
When you are part of the VoiceQuilt family, your relatives “expect” a VoiceQuilt Keepsake gift for birthdays, anniversaries and other important events like graduations. As a result, I have created quite a few VoiceQuilts over the years. Little did I know that I was creating a time capsule of my children’s voices as well!
I thought it would be fun to compare the voices of my two boys (who are now 16 and 18) and listen to how their voices have changed over the years. And oh my— how they have changed! This adventure reminded me of the infamous Brady Bunch TV episode when Peter’s voice changed.
For fun, I downloaded all of my VoiceQuilts and then uploaded each boy’s messages into separate time capsule VoiceQuilts.
Here are a few voice message snippets from Kevin:
And not to be forgotten, Brian:
I wish I had recordings of my children’s voices when they were even younger! I so enjoyed collecting voice message toasts, tributes and favorite memories for family members over the years. I now see other benefits as well: being able to assemble a time capsule of my children’s voices that I’ll cherish for years to come.
A Cherished VoiceMail And Other Audio Memories
Leon
Our guest blogger this week is Kate Spears, a freelance social media manager and blogger as well as a VoiceQuilt gift giver and friend. A self-proclaimed southern belle, Kate created a blog called Southern Belle Simple where she shares stories, beloved family recipes, southern traditions and more. She is very sentimental about preserving memories will be holding a VoiceQuilt giveaway on her blog at the end of September.
There’s something about the power of hearing a familiar voice that can transport you to a different place and time. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for audio memories. Maybe it was my family’s old holiday sing-along recordings or the sweet voicemail messages that I’ve saved in my voicemail since 2006. In fact, there was one voice message in particular that spurred me to contact VoiceQuilt. I wanted to preserve that audio memory and contacted VoiceQuilt about their recording rescue service.
My mom is a 4th grade teacher and her job, while rewarding, can be challenging. In 2006, she had a student named Ian, a kind and intelligent young man who also happened to be autistic. One day my mom showed her class a photo of my then-new puppy Leon and Ian was instantly taken with him.
Over the course of the year, my puppy Leon became a pen pal for the class. I wrote letters as Leon, encouraging the students to study and be kind to one other. Sometimes Ian had trouble focusing in class but my mom was able to help him focus by making Leon part of the daily lesson. For some reason, a day came when Ian really wanted to talk to Leon so my mom let him call me from school.
This is where my cherished voice mail and one of my favorite audio memories comes into play. Ian called and I wasn’t available so he left me a voice message, telling me how much he loves and misses Leon. There is such hope and joy in his voice, so I saved the voice message. Soon after, we learned Ian’s mom had gotten a new job in a different city and that the family was moving at the end of the school year.
I took Leon to visit the class so that he and Ian could say goodbye. There wasn’t a dry eye that day. Ian gave me one of his school pictures and I put it up on my bulletin board so I could see his smiling face and be reminded of his hope and optimism. I saved Ian’s voice message on my phone all these years so I could listen to it whenever I needed a lift. Now Ian is 16 and attends high school in Chicago. We reconnected recently via social media and his first question to me was about Leon.
I feel very fortunate to have audio memories of Ian and to also know that he is growing up and happy with his life. With the anniversary of September 11 upon us, I am reminded that everyone isn’t as lucky as I. Many of the individuals trapped in the Twin Towers called and left their loved ones messages, audio memories which stand as the last evidence of their lives. Some called to say big things and others just called to hear the other’s voice. No matter, those voices were powerful and the folks at VoiceQuilt understand that.
But I think it’s important to remember that the ones we love are always with us, when we keep them alive in our hearts. Yes, our audio memories help to keep them close to us and I’m so grateful to have mine of Ian. I’m also grateful to my friends at VoiceQuilt for helping me preserve the message that I’ve saved for so long.
Military Care Packages and Operation: Care and Comfort
Operation: Care and Comfort – A Military Nonprofit
Operation: Care and Comfort is a non-profit, all volunteer organization that sends military care packages to soldiers deployed overseas. Virtually all of their funding goes towards postage for the cost of shipping military care packages. The OCC has care package programs for military families in the San Francisco Bay Area, too. They distribute sports tickets, gift cards and other items donated by corporate partners and philanthropic individuals.
Last week, the OCC asked friends to call in to record voice message testimonials on Facebook.
“OCC is creating a video about the work we do, and we want to include comments from those we serve – our troops, veterans and their families. What did OCC do to support you and your family? Did you receive care packages?”
Julie De Maria, OCC’s Founder, asked VoiceQuilt to edit the voice message testimonials so that they could be included in a fundraising video. When I listened, I heard voices brimming with emotion:
* A military Mom described her toddler’s delight with a show featuring Elmo;
* A homeless veteran described a baseball game that lifted his spirits;
* A military widow thanked the OCC for an outing that “meant so much” to her dying husband.
At VoiceQuilt, we’ve been privileged to hear wonderful military thank-you’s: moms and daughters recording thank you messages for the troops on Veteran’s Day; Atlanta families, politicians and sports celebrities calling in to thank the troops during the Christmas season.
OCC’s messages from military families made me realize how important these care packages have been. Please consider taking a moment to vote for OCC in the Chase Community Giving Program! With your help, OCC can deliver more care packages to families like Jose’s. (Take a listen to his voice message at the top of this post!)
Fun Ways to Celebrate Grandparents Day!
Grandparents are very special, but we don’t always take the time to celebrate them as often as we should. September 9, 2012 is Grandparents Day. It’s a great excuse to plan activities and gifts that make grandma and grandpa feel special.
One Grandparents Day idea is to invite grandma and grandpa over for a celebratory meal. If your child is old enough, he or she can get involved in the cooking process. Ask kids to set the table with special personalized placemats that grandpa or grandma can take home.
Another wonderful idea – courtesy of the DIY blog Young House Love – is creating a thankful jar. All you need is a container and several small slips of paper. Write down different things you and the kids love about grandma and grandpa and add them to the jar.
Personalized jewelry is wonderful gift for Grandma. Handmade jewelry gifts are available from sites like Etsy, including this lovely necklace with sweet bird charms featuring each grandchild’s name.
At VoiceQuilt, we’re privileged to hear families celebrate grandparents every day. As part of a 90th birthday celebration, granddaughter Kathryn shared her favorite memories of a trip taken with her grandma. In another family, four-year old Graham shared favorite memories of time with grandpa and grandma as a holiday gift.
Grandparents are a special blessing and we hope you’ll be inspired to honor grandparent’s day in unique and creative ways!