A stunning 48 hours and 780 miles...

Back online! Where can I possibly start when trying to explain the last 48 hours. I think it's best done through images with very brief descriptions so here goes...

From Denver into the beautiful Rocky mountains for half a day...

A brief pit stop in Grand Junction (I HAVE to come back to stay there for longer, an amazing little town sat beside the Rockies, with so much to see). Found this antique store 'Haggle of the Vendor Emporium' which is well worth telling you about. The store owner for the last 24 years, had an outstanding eye for the VM (visual merchandising) throughout the store. Very on trend with 50's and kitsch memorabilia and collectables, he says he makes lots of 'nostalgia' sales - love it!  

From Grand Junction we crossed into Utah...

As the day drew to a close, I cannot begin to tell you the beauty of the way the clouds framed the mountains, as the sun shone like torch lights down into the valley below. Honestly these pictures do not do it justice. Magnificent would be a good word. It's hard not to feel the touch of the creator behind views like this.  

By the end of yesterday we were well into Utah, past the town of Moab and on the edge of National Monument. Home for the night was a cabin in the foothills of the Abajo Mountain range, complete with a campfire, late night star gazing (never seen the Milky Way that clearly before), and a distinct lack of 21st century comforts - it was perfect. 

We woke up to wild deer outside out cabin, and fresh coffee on the doorstep - bliss.

Today was a drive through National Monument - hard to convey in pictures but it was striking, mind bending and it even caused our car full to be speechless for a short while...followed by hours of entertainment with a long game of 'that one looks like a ....'!  

 

After 200 miles, passing into another time zone (MST - mountain standard time) we crossed into our next state, this time Arizona. We arrived at the Grand Canyon just in time to enjoy lunch to the backdrop of it's breath-taking and really quite scary views. It's a mesmerising place to sit and reflect on life feeling very, very small!

Oh, and along the route, so far, we've spotted deer, coyotes, gophers, red squirrels (no signs of plague yet), wild horses and ponies, eagles, wild turkeys and this little lizard!

 

We are now staying overnight in Flagstaff (100 miles south of Grand Canyon) and ready to experience Las Vegas tomorrow....another update in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading.

New friends and farewell to Denver...

Although there's still so much more to tell you about Arc Thrift and their CSR partnerships I thought I might keep a post for another day when you get bored of me telling you about the desert roads of Arizona and Nevada, plus I have LOTS of packing to do.

Today, on our last day in Denver, we have been thrilled to make some new friends - Kristi, her gorgeous girls Kate and Megan, and their friend and nanny Erin. Kristi (who is a friend of Jo's back in Philadelphia) opened her home to us, cooked us a delicious meal and we all got to hang out together. Sadly her husband was away for business but we've promised to visit again so we can meet him too (not that we need any excuse to return to Denver, it's truly great here - a wining city, with winning people!).

Of course we couldn't miss a chance to call in at a nearby thrift store on the way home (open til 9pm), this time a Goodwill Thrift Store. Pretty bog standard as Goodwill stores go, but cheap prices so as always a few bargains were purchased. You will be hearing lots more about Goodwill once I get to San Francisco...with 2,700 thrift stores and 83 million donors nationwide, an annual retail turnover of over $3.5 billion and $22 million in corporate grants I am looking forward to understanding more about this thrift store giant next week.

Tomorrow we will be heading off on the long road trip to San Francisco (via Las Vegas). Tomorrow night we are staying at a cabin in the middle of Arizona so will have to take a break from posting until we get back to civilisation in a couple of days time.

Oh, forgot to tell you I'm now (accidently but completely legitimately, I think) the proud owner of a Wells Fargo bank account - so I might not return home after all...   

Baseball, CSR and community partnerships at Arc Thirft

So we just got back from Colorado Springs, and the Sky Sox baseball game (at the country's highest baseball stadium). Although not without it's hiccups (almost rained off and delayed for 2 hours) the Sky Sox's won it's first game in the last 7 and it was fun with a capital F.

The game included: music between every ball thrown, a crazy mascot called Sox (the fox, of course), giveaways like pizza, a bible (which was given to me after the MC came over for a chat and heard it was our first game - my gang said they would have preferred the pizza!), hotel breaks, season tickets and scores of baseballs. There were crazy games in every break, and we even figured out the rules with the help of a friendly beer vendor.

Our complimentary seats were among the best in the house, (thanks to Kathy at Arc and John Eddy at Sky Sox) and the kids got free baseball gloves too (it was a 'family giveaway game' and the first 1500 kids through the gates all got them), signed by Sox once we managed to catch him!

 

Sky Sox & Arc Thrift...

John Eddy, Kathy's original contact at Sky Sox, was first approached during a cold call with a request for an auction lot (we've all been there!), and their relationship has developed over the years. This just demonstrates the time and effort required to develop corporate contacts...a good lesson to take away for the future.

The view from our seats and part of the Arc advertising on the screen...

Arc are one of the official sponsors for the Sky Sox. As Arc pay for this privilege, it is a corporate partnership with a difference. As you should know by now, I'm here looking for unique and creative partnerships so this fits right in. The benefits of this partnership for Arc are pretty far reaching and clear to see. They organised a 'tailgate BBQ' fundraiser before the game (a BBQ in the parking lot, served from car's boots if you are wondering) and were mentioned numerous times the game, including at one of the breaks where an Arky Arc advert was shown on the electronic score board, the crazy mascot Fox did a song and dance with the crowd that related to this and over 100 of the Arc league group were watching the game for free. Arc are thrilled with the 5 month season partnership, so it will be really interesting to see if they continue it next year.

Arc also run events, fundraisers and store openings where Sox (the Fox) attends as the 'VIP', and are able to openly advertise their relationship with Sky Sox in stores and adverts etc. The Sky Sox are the only triple A affiliate to major league Denver based Colorado Rockies which translates to a high profile in the area, and a solid fan base.     

Arc community partnerships, programs and events...

Arc also run a wide and diverse range of community events and partnerships. These range from events that benefit their target group, those with developmental disabilities and those that benefit the community as a whole, particularly those from low income families. The second of these programs often involve a partner charity who co-ordinate the program on the ground. Again there is so much to tell you about, but I've pulled out one that really stood out and could be easily transferable to the UK...

Fill-a-truck Fundraiser - this involves supporting local community groups to raise there own funds through collecting donations for Arc. Arc deliver a truck to an agreed location and the community group fill the truck with donations generated from their friends, family and supporters. Upon collection of the truck, Arc pay $'s per pound for the donations collected. The community group are happy to have funds for their next activity or event (often this is scout or girl guides groups), and Arc get donations (often great quality) to sell in their stores.

There are many other community partnerships and programs Arc run that do not benefit them directly; I suppose you could see it as their own CSR partnerships, giving back to the community that in turn may support the shop as customers and donors of the future.

Voucher Distribution - Arc produce an estimated 100,000+ shopping vouchers each year that are distributed to local charities to give out to their clients, Arc partner with both the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America. Each $5 voucher is redeemable in store, there is no minimum spend and vouchers can be added together meaning 4 vouchers, worth $20, could be spent in store at once. There is no catch (although understandably no change will be given!).

Volunteers of America (VoA) City Harvest Annual Food Drive - each year VoA run an food drive. This is in essence a huge annual food bank. In the months running up to the event Arc tell every potential donor they speak to at their call centre about the drive, and offer to pick up donations of food at the doorstep while picking up donations of goods for their stores. Arc then store, and eventually package up the food which is given to the partnering charities to distribute. To give you an idea of scale, this year 150 tonnes of food has been collected by Arc!! Wow.

Back  to School drive - every year a number of charities in the Denver area run a back to school drive. This drive offers children receiving school meals a chance to have free clothing, shoes and supplies to help ease the cost of their return to school. Arc provide 100% of the clothes for this initiative. They also partner with Crocs (who are based in Denver) who last year gave each child two pairs of shoes.

It's quite a humbling thing to see a non-profit acting in such a proactive and deliberate way in this area, and inspires me to consider how UK charity shops could begin to involve themselves in activities like this. If just a small proportion of the10,000 plus UK shops engaged with their local communities, what impact could it have?

I'll leave you with that thought overnight...

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Following a big storm in Denver last night the wifi at the hotel went down preventing my usual evening post, grrr. Back up and running now so here goes for yesterday.

There is masses to do in Denver so we've planned in lots of activities in between project commitments to maximise our time here. The choice yesterday was a visit to Denver Zoo (a 80 acre zoo in the US top five)...

Close encounters...eek

 

Lovely Asian elephants which live in amazing 2 mile enclosure

Beautiful Leopard

More tonight about Arc Thirft and their CSR and community partnerships and that very important ball game...

Arc Thrift...part 1

I've had an exceptional day today meeting with Arc Thrift Stores who were my third project, and are based here in Denver.

Kathy McAdoo (director of community events and vehicle donations) has spent the day giving me a fantastic tour of their operations (well, as much as we could squeeze into a day anyway), answering my many questions, chatting charity shops in the UK, the royal baby and lots, lots more! Kathy's openness (along with that of the managers and staff I met throughout the day) meant that I have a wealth of information to mull over for my research, my head is swimming with ideas to take back home and develop further with Mercy in Action too.

With 22 stores across the state of Colorado, 1200 members of staff, 108,000 sq ft of warehousing, 8 drive-thru donation stations and scores of community and corporate partnerships Arc is understandably a high profile thrift network in the area. The brand image is strong, professional and very fun - see their little bird character Arcky (pictured in reception below).

The Arc mission statement is 'The mission of the Arc Thrift Stores is to enhance the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families by providing funding to support the Arc and ACL chapters in Colorado. We believe that all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities should have the opportunity to decide how they live, learn, work, and play'. However their involvement goes much wider than passing on funds to the various Arc chapters - employment and training opportunities and ambassador roles are offered to many individuals who are seen as a key part of the day to day operations of the business.

Stores with plentiful bargains...

We managed to visit the Green Mountain Arc thrift store today (12039 West Alameda Parkway, Lakewood), and had a great time meeting the store manager Pam, with her help I was able to understand the day to day operations a little better.

Sorting area

Arc process stock at store level where it is sorted, cleaned, priced and displayed for sale. The stores are generally large (10,000 sq ft and up - think big, out of town units), so again the biggest challenge for the staff is stock levels.

There is enough space for clear sorting areas in the store room enabling fast and efficient systems. A minimum of 5000 items are put out for sale in just this store alone, per day! Stock levels here were good right throughout the store.

Excess stock is returned on pallets, boxed and labelled to the warehouse for storage where is can be re-ordered when required by each store. On this site there were also two huge containers outside for excess stock storage.

The final thing that stood out in talking with Pam was her obvious love for her job and the Arc vision. I know from my own experiences back home motivated and passionate managers are the best ones (we are very lucky to have lots of them at MiA too!).
               

Around 10% of the 1200 employees at Arc have developmental disabilities. Both Kathy and Pam talked about the huge value these individuals add to the organisation in terms of staff moral, team spirit, work ethic, even sick days have dropped.


Never forgetting you vintage savy shoppers here's a few little (and not so little) treasures that were on the shop floor. 

1950's enamel also hitting the mark here in Denver too 

 

Donations, donations and more donations...

Arc are extremely focused on generating the high volume donations required for the successful running of their 22 stores. Through their weekly donations taskforce meetings a clear and multi-faceted plan is underway which keeps donations at a high level and ensure it's continued success.

Arc donation drive initiatives, although not necessarily new to the sector here in the USA, are  executed with military precision and being able to see them up close has led me to consider whether they are something that could be transferred to the UK. Here's just a couple of them...

Donations Stations (the US drive thru with a difference)

Arc operate 8 donation stations across the state. The one we visited today in Denver is one of the most successful, having generated over one million pounds (lbs) of donations last year alone. It is staffed with one full timer (mon - fri), and part time cover over the weekend meaning overheads are low.

The site is a disused petrol station (something we have quite a few of in the UK....can you hear the clogs turning...). The staff welcome donors at their car windows and build up great rapport with repeat donors. They collect donations from the boots of donor cars directly meaning minimal effort is needed on the part of the donor. The donations are loaded onto pallets, wrapped, labelled, and then collected daily. They are then sent to stores for sorting, as required.

House-to-house Donation Collections

I'm sure most of you have had some experience of this personally; a bag dropped through the door, a request to fill with donations and details of when and where to leave the bag for collection on the given day. Well this is NOTHING like that! Arc operate a fleet of 55 vans, which collect at around 7,500 homes every week (yes, week).

To book in these collections a team of 50 call centre operatives are employed to contact individuals (using a mailing list), they let each interested potential donor know there is a donation drive taking place in their area, and whenever possible schedule in a collection. Around 50,000 donation collections are generated in this way every month.

Arc also offer a website option for booking a collection, where donors can schedule their pick up online. This would normally be slotted in to the planned monthly pick up for that area, meaning no additional resources are needed. Call centre operatives call to confirm collection a couple of days before hand with the donor.

Collections are made using a van (pictured above), usually manned by just one person, who will accept items from outside the donors house. Outsized, unusual items and furniture can also be collected with a 2 man van on a separate day, these vans would collect from 10 - 15 sites per day.

You'll see from the map below, the wider Denver area is split into areas, then small sections for each daily collection in that areas. Each area is visited around once a month. The logistics needed for this size operation are huge, but starting small I can really see how this could work in the UK...When most charity shops are seeing a drop in donations year on year, we must come up with new and innovative ideas for generating donations from previously untapped sources.

I want to tell you so much more about donations (cars, community drives...) and especially about Arc's CSR and community partnerships, but I will wait for another day for that, I'm tired now and it's getting very late.

 

Kathy has amazingly managed to arrange for us to attend a Sky Sox team baseball game in Colorado Springs on Sunday. Arc has a sponsorship partnership with the Sky Sox, and will be represented by the store manager in Colorado, and some of the Arc chapter and team too, so we will get to see some of Arc's partnerships in action first hand.

Ready for the Rockies

We arrived in Denver at lunchtime today, having crossed into our third time zone (mountain time which is -7 BST). Denver and it's long anticipated surroundings did not disappoint. It was the last 15 miles of the drive when the landscape changed dramatically as the Rockies came into view. We had watched the elevation gradually raise during our 4 hours drive (Denver is at 1800m above sea level), and it was good to finally see why.

As we approached Denver...



Tomorrow I am spending the day with my third project, and I'm looking forward to another dose of inspiration and ideas.   

I forgot to mention in my last post, that when we went into Hays for dinner last night we spotted a thrift store called 'The ARC of Central Plains'. It was closed so we couldn't go in, but it did have one of the strangest, and likably quirky window displays I have ever seen, so had to share it. I would love to speak to the person with the creative thinking behind this one - if you can figure out the hidden meaning let me know!

 

2000 miles (almost)....final stop before Denver!

Our day off in Kansas City yesterday was uneventful, we ended up at an outlet mall and movie theatre where are watched Pacific Rim (forgettable) and The Lone Ranger (fantastic).

Today we've been back on the road for another 300 miles, and have arrived safely for an overnight stop in Hays (slap bang between Kansas City & Denver). The first week of full-on driving is coming to an end. We have almost clocked up 2000 miles of the total 4000 mile road trip, which feels like a great achievement. 

The current scenery is nothing to write home about; long straight, flat roads with corn fields running along side. This adds to the anticipation of arriving in Denver through the Rockies tomorrow. Just 330 miles (4.5 hours driving time to go). These days that feels like a walk in the park, but back home that would get me from London to Gretna Green (just inside the Scottish border!). 

I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures to share tomorrow so come back soon....

PS with baby news big in the headlines I have to mention I am very proud to be an aunty again with a very special arrival yesterday...well done to the Inger/Brights! Just one more to go....come on baby M&J! 

Kansas City

Another travel day has brought us across another state line into Missouri and we've come to Kansas City (nope, it's not in the state of Kansas at all). Great, easy drive and we are now checked in to a fab, cheap hotel booked at the last minute. No firm plans for tomorrow yet but I'll keep you posted on what we end up doing. 

Kansas City as we approached today

Oh yeah, also I did some research into St Louis and found that the dwindling population is the reason for the derelict buildings. Here's an interesting article with some incredible images of the buildings we saw: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2169773/Stunning-photographs-transform-St-Louis-landscape-crumbling-buildings-abandoned-homes-slum-beautiful-art.html

St Louis discoveries...

St Louis has a strangely depressed feel about it, I have no idea if it was hit harder than any other city by the recession but at least 50% of the buildings and businesses on the drive from the freeway to downtown were either boarded up or derelict. We headed to City Museum because although hot, the city is stormy and it seemed like the best bet for a good day.

City Museum is an abstract, art filled, fully interactive, weird (in a good way), oversized play park. If Willy Wonka was designing a park, this would be it. Inside, a world of underground caves links the  spaces between floors, everywhere you look there's a small agile child popping out of a hole in the floor or an oversized, red faced adult trying to squeeze through a gap in the wall (we were the oversized adults at times so couldn't laugh too much!).

The top of the building is home to a Ferris wheel, a school bus (balanced 'precariously' on the edge of the building), fountains, death slides, a 10 storey slide...and lots, lots more....all this while adults either join in the fun or sit back, eat homemade nachos and drink beer - we did both! Great views too which I hope will give you a feel for the city.

On a professional note I would like to add there were few signs (slightly annoying), no obvious health and safely aka padded walls/warning signs/foam (liberating) and fair prices (unusual). Needless to say if a thrift store could be styled like City Museum I would want one!

 

 





 

More tomorrow, this time from Kansas City...

Drive 438 miles west from Columbus and you meet....

...St Louis!

Well, we were grateful to check out of our first (and hopefully last) grotty hotel of the trip this morning (winging it not paying off for us this time!). On the upside we had great food at Thurman's café (a locals favourite but made famous through the Man v's Food show). The burgers were outstanding, and you'll be pleased to know 'man' mostly won!!

This morning we began our second long travelling day before a 2 night stopover in St Louis, where we are now. We've crossed two state lines today (we'll cross over into Missouri tomorrow when we head to downtown St Louis), and covered over 438 miles through thunderstorms, incredible lightening and driving rain so really looking forward to a couple of days out of the car. Phew.   



Passing through Indianapolis....

Very stormy border crossing into Illinois