Superhero Day

[John Reid]

Greetings Knight-Hood speaking. The number one problem here in Florida is not drugs or prostitution but the homeless situation. The homeless population has doubled in the past 5 years and there is an estimated 18,000 homeless people in Pinellas County alone.

Our food banks and homeless shelters are being overwhelmed. So to counter this I came up with a grass roots idea last year and I am still trying to promote it.

It occurred to me that millions of people go out on Halloween each year. Parents take their children door to door to collect candy. I was thinking what if we try to start a new holiday on October 30th called "Superhero Day" and ask all of those who are going to celebrate Halloween anyway to go out the night before also, only instead of collecting candy, they collect canned food for the homeless and donate it a local homeless shelter.

By doing this at the end of October our food banks will be filled right before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

With the help of Superhero and Artisteroi of Team Justice I made a you tube video last year. Here is the link. www.youtube.com/watch?v=42RIQZ8fVFA&feature=youtu.be

I am once again trying to promote this idea this year. Last year I wrote to all of the news stations and papers but got no response. This year I am trying to use Facebook to promote it. I posted my video link to all the local news channels Facebook page.

If any of you out there know of anyway to get the word out please let me know.

Thanks
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

We could tweet about this. People would then come and read your message and see the link.

[John Reid]

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. I posted my video link on all the local news Facebook pages under "write something" and today I see 4 people saw it. I was hoping for more of course.

Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

go to the video on youtube and see if the counter has changed at all...

[John Reid]

Yes, my count went from 510 to 515. More good news. One of those who saw it was the Social Media Editor from our local ABC station. She asked me to call her. Unfortunately I am between cell phones at the moment, but I did locate a pay phone at a 7-11 not far from me. I emailed her and asked her if I could phone her this Tuesday at 12 noon. So far no reply today.

Knight-Hood

[John Reid]

Ok today I walked down to the Circle K, which is a local convenience store, and used their pay phone to speak to Heidi Barley, the Social Media Editor for WFTS our local ABC affiliate. She asked me for some background so I spoke about how I started doing this and then we talked for a time about the homeless situation here in Pinellas County and then finally how I came up with the Superhero Day idea. She said she would speak to her bosses and get back with me and that she would like to do a story with me and Superhero at William's Park.

Ok I'll let you know if and when that is definite
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

*squeeling in excitement*

Knight-hood that is SO exciting!!! I hope it all works out for you!

[John Reid]

Well I have mixed emotions. First there is a 50-50 chance they will decide against it. Then even if they do the one story how many will see it? Out of those, how many will actually do it?

Then there are my personal anxieties. I don't really want to go on TV for several reasons. Someone could recognize my voice. Or it could spark curiosity about me from the press and they might track me down. I certainly don't need that happening.

Nevertheless the cause is worthy and I can't let my personal fears get in the way. Sometimes being a hero means going ahead and doing something you are afraid of. After all I did get this ball rolling in the first place so I need to see it through to the end.

Knight-Hood

[John Reid]

It's been 4 days now and not a peep from Heidi Barley. I have the feeling that her bosses torpedoed the story.

Here is the problem I am facing. Florida is a tourist state. They have no State tax and rely entirely on tourism dollars to stay afloat. This means they avoid like mad any negative stories about Florida at all costs. It's almost like they are in denial or something.

For instance, here we have the giant Asian flying cockroach, but they don't want tourists to know that Florida is the land of giant cockroaches, it's bad for tourism. So they refer to them only as "Palmetto bugs". In truth the real palmetto bugs are woods cockroaches and are very slow moving bugs. The flying Asian cockroach moves like the wind and are not palmetto bugs but really big roaches.

So it's the same for the huge homeless population that has reached epidemic proportions. The local news does not want to publicize this problem. It's bad for tourism to admit that Florida is not the paradise they sell it to be.

The current local administration's plan to deal with the problem is to sweep it under the rug. So I will be very surprised if I ever hear from Ms Barley again. Not to sound pessimistic but I just know how things work down here. This is why I have met a solid wall of resistance against promoting my idea.

Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

*dislike*

[John Reid]

It's been one week now since I spoke with Ms Barley and I have not heard back from her. I emailed her today and am awaiting a response. I would not be surprised to learn that the story was shot down by her bosses.

Meanwhile I just heard that Clearwater has joined the ranks of St. Pete and Tampa in outlawing sleeping in public places. The reason was given that Clearwater Beach brings in a lot of revenue and it looks bad to have so many homeless people sleeping on it.

So once again the homeless are run out of town in the name of tourist dollars. Very frustrating.

[The Muse]

Its a shame that with all the money spent on needless programs and things for the cities like landscaping grants, etc, that there is not a great deal more funding available for programs to help the homeless. Not just with shelters and the like, but to get back on their feet.

[John Reid]

Oct. 18th, 2012; Update; So far this year I have snail mailed the Editor of the Tampa Bay Times urging them to do a story about Superhero Day including the comic strip I created. No reply.

Next I posted my You Tube video on all the Facebook pages of all the local TV news stations. I did receive one inquiry as I reported from our ABC affliate, who asked me to call her. I did so and never heard from her again.

Today I emailed every boyscout troop in St. Petersburg and am awaiting a response. That's it so far. I have to keep trying.
Knight-Hood

[John Reid]

Oct. 21; Update; I posted my Superhero Day video on the Facebook pages of Channel's 8, 10 and 13 here in St. Pete. I have noticed a few people check it out each time I post it. So if they tell a few people I am very slowly getting the word out despite all of the resistance I have encountered.
I am going to find out how much it costs for an ad in the Tampa Bay Times and try and save up enough money by next year. Not sure what else to try at this point.
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

I put out another tweet on twitter for it. Lets see if we can get more people to go take a look at the video.

[The Muse]

The count is at 529...hopefully we can get that number up.

[John Reid]

Now ir's up to 533. I started out this year at 519, so I am reaching a few people. Oh and thanks for tweeting about it. I don't know how to do that.

Ok this morning I posted the video on the Facebook page of Bay New 9, which is the cable TV's news channel, and looked up Channel 13's Facebook page, which is our Fox News channel, but they do not seem to have a single Facebook page like the other channels, but a page that has links to every news caster they have Facebook page so I posted it on Laura Moody's Facebook page and went to bed.

Now I will go back and post it on each individual Facebook page of each news caster. That might take me a little time but I am off the next two days.

If I can reach even a handful of people to try and get them involved they might spread the word to some of their friends. It's worth a shot at least.
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

well apparently that 4 came from the four who saw it on facebook...since our twitter is linked to our facbook page. So if you go, or have your rlsh friends go and "like" and "share" that post, even more people will see it. They can find us at :https://www.facebook.com/pages/Visual-Adjectives/142356589138295?ref=hl

The post with your picture in the thumbnail is on there for yesterdays date.

[John Reid]

Thanks again. I couldn't find any way to post on Channel 13's Facebook page and each newscaster only has topics you can comment on, but the good news is that I found the Facebook page of a local group called "Food not Bombs" who protested Clearwater's recent anti-homeless laws. So I posted my video on their Facebook page. I hope that triggers a reaction from like minded individuals.

[The Muse]

*fingers crossed*

[John Reid]

Happy Superhero Day everyone. The last 3 weeks I posted my You Tube video every day on the Facebook pages of local news channels 8, 10, 11 and Bay News 9 the cable news from Brighthouse. The count on the video is up to 538. Up from 519 last year. But the 519 are people all around the world wide web. What I needed was to reach more local people. By posting it on the local news channel's Facebook pages I know that the 19 people who watched the video are all locals. What I am hoping is that even one person loves this idea and rallies their friends to participate. This is how a grass roots movement begins. We will see. Meanwhile I will begin planning for next year's campaign. If I keep at it, sooner or later it might take off. All I can do is keep trying.
Knight-Hood

[The Muse]

I will go tweet about it again with a link to the video.

[John Reid]

Thanks for you support. The count is still 538. Which is 19 local people who checked out the video. That doesn't mean they will decide to do it though, but I am still hopeful.

Knight-Hood

[John Reid]

Happy Halloween everyone. Well the second annual Superhero Day came and went. I got closer this time to getting some publicity for it. I picked up 19 locals who watched the video. I have no way to know if anyone participated or not. Next year I will try again and keep trying until I get this ball rolling.

Knight-Hood

[John Reid]

November 11, 2012; update- Hmm...I just noticed that my viewer count has gone up again to 543 even though I quit advertising it on Oct 30th. One person at a time I am managing to get the word out. Well maybe next year will be the year. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Knight-Hood