Buddy and Holly in the Newsletter

How has this idea enhanced your club's operation, etc.?

In 2016, Buddy and Holly (Santa’s Elves on the Shelves) made their appearance at Miramont. We photographed them daily leading up to Christmas and featured the photos on the club’s Instagram account. The children and grandchildren of our members loved “following” the elves and often visited the club in order to find Buddy and Holly. In 2017, we increased Buddy and Holly’s presence by featuring them in Miramont Living, the club’s bi-monthly newsletter. We then offered the children the opportunity to win a prize by counting all the references (pictures and mentions in the copy) and accurately reporting them to us.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

We emailed all of our members and instructed children and grandchildren to count the number of times they found the elves in pictures and in the text. “If they are both in the same picture, it counts as two elves,” we instructed. “In the text, find EVERY instance where ‘Buddy’ or ‘Holly’ is mentioned. Your parents may help, so make sure they read the entire newsletter!” We received 15 responses, and every child who replied won a free dessert. The five children who guessed accurately were awarded one free dessert every time they come to the club for one year! We discovered that this particular edition of the newsletter was probably the most well-read publication of the year. We were quite pleased by not only the feedback we received from children, but also the discussions it created among adults.