doodling on the iPad becomes a symbol for galvanizing a community[/caption]On an early December evening of last year I plopped emotionally exhausted into the big leather chair I plop into on most evenings. I fired up the Neu.Draw app on my iPad to unwind and within a few minutes I had crafted a Hamilton Community Schools version of the Boston Strong logo.
You see, it had been a rough few days around the little town in West Michigan where I teach. A few days earlier one of our very best teachers had been taken from us in an auto accident on his way to school. Josh Hoppe was all that is right with teaching and inspiring learners. Kids were hurting. Teachers were hurting. The whole town was hurting. Josh's funeral would be the next morning and for me personally the logo was just a way of digging for some extra strength to get beyond the sadness and hurt.
Like a lot of things, I posted it to social media and within a few minutes people were asking to borrow it as their avatars. I happily obliged and over the course of the next few days I started to see it more and more. Now, I literally see it everywhere in this community, especially on social media where countless people I know and don't know are using it to represent their pride for a community that has time and time again come together to support each other. Just today I noticed that the parent volunteer office had added it to its letterhead and the Hamilton Baseball team was featuring it on its new shirts.
Pretty cool! I don't care about intellectual royalties. I am just honored a great community finds something it likes in something I created, well borrowed from the Boston community. It has served the same purpose in Beantown.
I am a big fan of irony and here is the funny part. Shortly after I moved to Hamilton in 1997, the University of Iowa told Hamilton we could no longer use the school's stenciled Hawkeye logo. There was a community-wide logo contest. I won $400...for second place. No, I didn't have my design chosen as the community's new rallying point over fifteen years ago. I am glad they like my second attempt.
Stay strong H-Town!
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