Cleaning For Our Future
This will be implemented in August 2011.

In looking for a way as a company to do some good for the community, and being a parent,
my first thought was to benefit our childrens’ future. Our schools are running on empty and most
extra-curricular activities are funded by donations and dues and fundraisers.

The extra-curricular activities help our children become good citizens by being well-rounded
and learning many intangible things such as teamwork, appreciation of the arts, leadership,
helping selflessly for a bigger cause, staying fit, learning healthy eating, time management
skills, self concept, post-secondary aspirations, social integration, community service
through the organization, making lifelong friends and connections, learning a lifelong
skill and family togetherness to support the group.

My three children have been involved in sports such as crew rowing, basketball and soccer
and arts such as chorus, dance, band and orchestra and other such as ROTC and foreign
language clubs. These activities more than anything else have made my children the people
they are today.

I worked on coming up with a win-win strategy to provide money to organizations such as
these and provide a true benefit to the customer and a true benefit to the organization and
a true benefit to The Original Dust Bunny. A plan came to mind!

Some many years ago when I lived in Minneapolis, a friend of mine, Sue, who worked for
the top-of-the-line Dayton’s (Dayton’s Dry Goods—established in 1902) department store
in Minneapolis told me about a win-win procedure Dayton’s implemented to get all the
Christmas trees in the store wonderfully decorated for free “overnight.”  They had a list of
people that they invited by special invitation every year to come in on a specific day to
decorate the trees. This list happened to be compiled of stay-at-home-wives (this is a
long time ago folks) of the social elite of the Minneapolis area. It was an honor to be
invited to this event. Refreshments were served and the store was buzzing with social
camaraderie as the trees magically blossomed into full decorated glory.

In addition to the honor of being invited, what did they get in return for their time to
creatively and beautifully decorate the trees? They happily received a certificate that
entitled them to 20% off everything in the store for a week.  They could get their Christmas
shopping done at 20% off and who doesn’t like to save money! The store made money too,
because they still had profit at 20% off and had all these extra purchases they would not
have had without the free tree trimming event and the good will was immeasurable.  
This was win-win all around!

Dayton’s was thought of as family by its loyal customers. They prided themselves on
customer service and doing the right thing for the customer, which kept people coming
back and feeling assured they would be treated well. I know I loved Dayton’s! Here in Florida
you may not have heard of Dayton’s since we do not have any; but we have their 1962 Discount
Store spinoff, Target.

I always loved that concept of using synergy (combined effort / results being greater than
 the sum of the parts) to make an accomplishment. That old saying, “You scratch my back,
I’ll scratch yours,” comes to mind. To make this more synergistic, the picture that comes to
mind is a group of people standing in a circle facing the back of the person to their right.
Every person is scratching the back of the person they are standing behind. Everyone’s back
has an itch but no one can reach their own back to satisfy the itch. Everyone is scratching a
back. It is a back they can reach, and they are in a circle, everyone’s itch is relieved. Each
person put forth an equal effort and everyone received an equal benefit.

If this were a line instead of a circle, one person would be left with scratching someone’s
back and getting nothing in return, so the circle is important here, follow me?

You presently hire a cleaning service, or plan to; the service has a price, so you trade money for
cleaning. That is a fair trade.

So, let’s add the synergy.  The way “Cleaning for Our Future” works is like this: Since it is a circle,
one can start anywhere, so let’s start with you.  You have a kid on the crew team and write monthly
checks, you know they need money for boats, trips, etc and the dues do not cover that. What if
you could painlessly and automatically donate $120.00 a year doing nothing different than you
do now? If you pay $200 a month for a maid service, you would painlessly donate $120.00 a year
by participating in this program.  The donations occur quarterly and are donated by us in your name,
so they can be attributed to your organization as dues or just a donation. We set this up how you
would like the donation to be attributed. When the donation goes out, the organization receives a
check from us with a letter that the donation is on your behalf and instructs how you want it to be
applied. At the same time we mail a copy of the letter to you so you are reminded of this donation
being attributed to you.

So you are getting the house cleaned, paying the same amount, and a “pet” school sport, school
arts activity, or other school extra-curricular group is benefiting because you selected The Original
Dust Bunny to provide your service. The Original Dust Bunny benefits because we find that people
like this concept and we do more house cleanings for more customers. Win-win-win.

If you do not have children or any school age children, you may select a favorite school
extra-curricular activity based on your preference to participate in this giving-back program.  Y
ou are not required to participate; it is at your discretion.

Sherry Cooper

Original Dust Bunny