Lessons learned from being a hero

I accepted a hero award last night. 

Madison Community car awarded hero status for the No Car Low Car Challenge I initiated in my neighborhood.  Here is what I learned:


1. Use Motivating Emotions: People do like being a hero. It felt good. I told everyone I knew. The families in the Challenge were proud.
2. Have an elevator pitch ready: . I got interviewed by Channel 3 ( local TV station.)  I didn't make the nightly news. I think it was because I didn't have a quoteable quote. I did tell a story when I accepted the award.  People referred to the story the rest of the night ( media were gone at that point)
3. Make it easy for the press: The organization didn't have a press release (they should have)
4. Take photos: A friend took photos ( which I will post to my blog and send to my neighborhood newspaper).  The organization could have also been taking photos for their website, newspapers, to promote next years' awards.
5. Make it easy to take action: There was a bunch of people at the event. We all felt good about what we personally were doing.  We could easily have been asked to take some kind of policy related action while we were there.

Photo Credit: Flickr: kagey