Career Day at Tartan Elemantary

I participated in my first ever career day last week at a local elementary school (John Tartan in North Las Vegas) and it was a total blast!  I'm not sure it's exactly what the parents expected when their little darling came home and decided to be a toy maker rather than a surgeon, but hey, sewing up a plush is sort of like sewing up a body I guess ;)

I had time for a 25 minute presentation to three classes so I brought my big santa bag full of my toys, and a fun activity to teach the kids about getting a product to the market.  It involved giving each of them a small plush fabric sample to inspire them to create a toy of their own (they drew their toy ideas) and talking about target markets, price points, inspiration, and retail locations.  My wildest dream came true when they sent me a big envelope of thank you notes - I've always loved reading all the kid-written thank you notes that are framed in doctors offices, art centers, etc and now I've got a whole stack of my own to pour over when I need inspiration to get back on my sewing machine.  One of the classes even took it a step further and emailed me a picture of some tiny critters they made using the small scrap of fabric I left them with (see below).

All in all, it was ridiculously fun and felt almost wrong to be advocating to the youth of America that they could and should be toy makers when they grow up.  Hopefully by then I'll have a huge Vegas based operation and they can help fill out my gigantic staff of public relations, development, marketing, and customer service departments.  Ah, dreams.  But the take away point is, if you are in Vegas and want an eager participant for your child's career day, call a Flaky Friend!