Stuffed animals collected at the Count Me In in office. (JG Photo/Count Me In)
Success comes in many forms. It can come from inspiring someone or being inspired by someone. Some people measure success by progress and efficiency and, of course, for others, success comes from material possessions. But for the team at Count Me In, success came in the form of a rewarding birthday campaign.
Twenty days before his Sept. 12 birthday, a member of the Count Me In staff jumped on the volunteer organization’s Twitter and Facebook accounts telling everyone that instead of birthday wishes this year, they would appreciate it if people would pitch in and donate stuffed animals.
“My first visit to the cancer ward for children at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM), Central Jakarta, was eye-opening,” said Nicola Menda, a new Count Me In volunteer, who has lived in Jakarta for just over a year.
“The look in the children’s eyes, the innocence and the smiles somehow brought clarity to my life. The mixture of joy and pain that I went through when I saw the excitement in their eyes at receiving a small stuffed animal was worth much more than a million dollars.”
The Count Me In goal was to collect 1,000 stuffed animals to give to the children in the cancer ward at RSCM.
In 20 days the Count Me In team collected over 3,000 stuffed animals. In fact, with drop boxes at The Goods Dept in Pacific Place and Pondok Indah, which are still taking donations until Oct. 5, stuffed animals, along with diapers meant to relieve the burden from parents, are still rolling in.
“It’s important that we remind our community to think about giving back,” said Anton Wirjono, chief executive of The Goods Group. “Some members of from our team went and visited the kids. They came back and told the others about the experience and got them excited as well.
“We spend our days watching and creating the next cool thing. With this collaboration with Count Me In, we wanted to put across that giving back is always the right thing to do. Our outlets are located in public areas and are great vehicles for creating awareness and serving as stuffed animal and diaper drop-off points.”
Meanwhile, Count Me In was asking followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook to send donations directly to their office in BeritaSatu Plaza. Stuffed animals came from far and wide. A half dozen dolls arrived from Papua, pink poodles came in from Kemang, a cute and cuddly plush bear was sent from Gorontalo, Sulawesi. International schools like Mentari, Sinar Mas and Pelita Harapan held school-wide drives that brought in hundreds of stuffed animals. Mobile phone operators, Telkomsel and XL visited the CMI office in BeritaSatu Plaza, personally dropping off donations.
The idea was simple: People from throughout Jakarta and Indonesia donate stuffed animals, then throughout the year Count Me In, using Twitter and Facebook, would invite volunteers to join them as the distributed the dolls. Once the team collected 3,000 stuffed animals, they realized that if they organized a volunteer event every week for the next year, they would be able to distribute 57 stuffed animals each time they visited RSCM.
Kyra Pradiono, a Count Me In volunteer and children’s yoga instructor, who introduced the idea of collaboration to her friends at The Goods Dept, not only collected stuffed animals and help spread the word, but traveled to the hospital to see the joy the toys help spread.
“It was my third time visiting RSCM with Count Me In,” Kyra said. “Little things count, sharing, siting, chatting with the kids — to see the smiles on their faces. It’s priceless. Sometimes people don’t think about those little things. I would love to go back there again the next time CMI delivers stuffed animals.”
Like all Count Me In campaigns, the goal is to get more people volunteering. Stepping foot in the children’s cancer ward anywhere is difficult, and having something like a stuffed animal to hand over to a child, breaks the ice and begins a heartwarming conversation, helping bring volunteers closer to the kids and opening a door to an immediate bond that could last a lifetime.
EMCO Toys heard about the drive and kindly donated 10 boxes of construction blocks of all sizes, water blasters, and remote control cars for the boys of the hospital.”
“At EMCO Toys we truly believe in ‘All for Toys and Toys for All,’ ” EMCO Toys brand manager Cipta Croft-Cusworth said. “We market toys for every level of family consumer, and put a lot of care into making sure our toys are safe for kids.Helping kids who are physically or economically underprivileged and in need of a smile is a sensational bonus at the end of the day. For EMCO Toys to be a part of something so important is a tremendous honor, and we hope that this drive will inspire many more drives for all the other children in need of smiles.”
But like all Count Me In campaigns, it was a work in progress. Along the way the CMI team realized they couldn’t simply hand over stuffed animals potentially wrought with germs and dust. The stuffed animals had to be washed. That’s where 5aSec, a laundry came on board.
“It truly was a humbling experience for me to visit the children at RSCM,” said 5aSec marketing director Saraswati M Sjadzali, who visited the children of Cipto recently, seeing the see the effects of the campaign first-hand. “Just to see their eyes light up when they hugged the stuffed animals, made my day. 5aSec is delighted to be a part of this campaign.
“5aSec normally doesn’t clean stuffed animals, but when we heard about the Count Me In campaign we were happy to help out. It’s a great campaign and we hope more people participate.”
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