Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A Beach With No Sand

Good morning, Highlowaha! It's Katie here after what feels like a really long hiatus! However, I'll be with you the next two mornings bringing a piece of my world to you. Today, we're going to be on a similar wavelength as Claudia was yesterday with her Cinco de Mayo/Teacher Appreciation gifts. Let me start with a little background.

I am currently a first year graduate student at James Madison University. I work as a graduate Hall Director in a residence hall that houses 235 freshmen. In my building, I supervise eight undergraduate students who serve as resident assistants on each of the nine floors in my building. I have been with these students since August when we went through training together and then opened our hall to all 235 freshmen to enter their first year of college. Now, eight months later, it is time to bring the year to a close as all of those freshmen will be moving out of our hall this Friday. As their supervisor and as a way to say thank you for all of their hard work this year, I am hosting a "closing dinner" for my staff on Friday evening. At this dinner, I will be presenting each of them with an end of the year gift from me as a token of my appreciation for their hard work this year.

Enter today's post. I have the gift, I have all the supplies I need, and I'm in the process of pulling it all together. However, one VERY important piece is still missing from these gifts. The punch line!!! What is a fun gift for my staff without a fitting punch line to go along with it. What I mean by punch line is the tag to go on each of the gifts that will, in one short sentence, give them a synopsis of the purpose behind the gift. An example of this was at the beginning of the year, when I gave them each a bottle of Coke, a package of popcorn, and some toenail polish. The punch line for that gift was "Pop Your Feet Up and Relax"! For this gift, I have nothing! This is where you, my trusty HLA community and friends enter the picture for me! You are just the creative group of people that I need to help me out! For me right now, it's like I have a beach, but no sand. I need the sand to top if off (talking in a figurative way).

I have included a picture of one of the gifts I am giving them to help you understand what they will receiving. For each of them, I painted a terracotta pot and am having all of their residents either sign their name or write them a short note. Then, on the inside of the pot will be a magazine, a pair of flip flops, a pair of sunglasses, their favorite candy bar, and some sunscreen. As you can tell, it has sort of a relaxation/summer focus. So what do you think? Do any punch lines immediately come to your head? Throw them my way! I have been thinking on this for weeks and I just can't seem to come up with the right line!

What about the rest of you? Do you have any gifts that you will be giving to wrap up the end of the year for your students, your child's teacher, your Girl Scout troop, etc? What will you be giving them and do you have any great punch lines that you are using? Please feel free to share in the comment section today.

Signing off until tomorrow with the song of the day...

20 comments:

Heather said...

Hmmm...I always come up with the punch line and build from there because I agree no gift is complete without it. When you get stuck with a great gift and have to THEN develop the punchline that's tough...that is why I love the Fancy Flours challenge so much it is hilarious that Claudia is stuck with a Big Mouth Bass cookie cutter and has to tie it to Backyard Games Week...hahaha!!!
Though Katie it isn't so funny that you are stuck in the same predicament here...my only thought was to do something like, "Every flower needs some time in the sun" or "Thanks for growing our community now..." but I don't know where to take it from there. Hmmm...I'll think on it today.

Cheryl Houston said...

I haven't read the post yet... so I'll be back...

Don't forget to VOTE at www.tasteofusa.blogspot.comYesterdays winners are in todays comment section...

coffee.... coffee...

Chaotic Kristi said...

LOL @ Cheryl...coffee & SHOWER..... off I go.. as a note, I am closing PO Box and using street addy only... still no mail from HemmingRay...sigh

cassie p said...

ill have to think on this one for a bit. all i can think of is "enjoy your summer off" but thats NOT fun at all. ill see how i can twist it into a good punch line.

Peggy said...

A year well done!

Summer flipfloppin fun
In the Sun

Relax and read
shades on

Chocolate fix
and a great big
thanks!!

Amy said...

How about "Get Your Summer On!"

Cheryl Houston said...

Had my coffee. Okay Katie... How about:

Beat the Heat
You were Hot! Hot! Hot! Now start chillin'!
Your Future's So Bright!
Welcome to Lazy Summer Days!
Sum-Sum-Summer Time!!
Have a Sunsational Summer!

You might need to mix and match, add or take away but maybe that will jar something.

Chaotic- will you email your physical address to highlowaha218@gmail.com. I'll get Hemmingray out to you before the end of the week.

b.k.root said...

Our residence life department always does certificates of appreciation, and we did the "paper plate awards" this year. They went over very well.

If I think of any "slogans" or "punch lines" I'll pop back in.

Tera said...

KTK...something about soaking it all in...or soak up the sun. It'll need something before that, but I'm sure you can mix and match from what you get today!

Cheryl Houston said...

What about:

"I would have been a beach with no sand without you. Thanks for all your hard work."

Laura K said...

I love the ideas that have been thrown out so far...I need similar help - we are giving our graduating high school seniors little buckets filled with candy bouquets and I'm trying to come up with something cutesy for it to say...and we're also going to borrow Claudia's "fill your bucket" activity and have all the underclasswomen write them droplets to fill their buckets before they leave for college! Any other ideas....?

Katie said...

Thanks, everyone! I knew I could count on all of you for some great slogans. I know that after today I'll have a great one and many more in my back pocket for future use!

Heather- that's funny that you usually come up with the saying first and the gift second. I always do the gift first and punch line second, but this time I'm just flat out stuck. Must be that it's the end of the year and my brain is fried!

Brian- thanks for chiming in with what your office is doing! Anyone else out there giving gifts or certificates at the end of the year?

Stacie said...

OK, Katie, I know you just wanted a punchline, but I'm stuck on the idea that this gift needs one more thing... a packet of flower seeds! That way, each of them would have a reminder of you and the past year in the form of a plant for their next apartment or dorm room. As for a tag line, maybe combining a phrase someone else has already said with "Planting the Seeds of Summer" would work? Heather's suggestions woould work nicely with that. "Thanks for growing our community! Every flower needs some time in the sun, so plant the seeds of summer!" Maybe that's overkill?

Chaotic Kristi said...

well, I must say, I like the "Beach w/o sand if it weren't for you" one by Cheryl... so I am (now) looking at pic and I see "Style" magazine, sunglasses & flipflops = summer to me, candy= sweet, sunscreen for outdoors... so something along lines of "here's to getting outside of Freshman year in style, you sweet person"?

heather said...

I like Cheryl's " You were Hot hot hot so now start chilling!"

but I just feel like something has to tie the flower pot to the stuff inside whihc is where I was going with the "growing" "flower" thing...I agree with stacie about a pack of flower seeds...that would give them something that would last.

Katie said...

The flower pot itself really has no significance. I just love terracotta pots and think they are something nice to have in a dorm room/apartment. I have seen people use them as a way to store pens, scissors, etc. I personally have a pot with all my Sharpie markers in it. However, I kind of like the idea of seeds for flowers. I may have to make a run to Wal-Mart.

Cheryl Houston said...

It would have all gone to pot without you.

Anonymous said...

Sucker bouquet created for a birthday "40 Sucks"

for a graduating class...
You leaving,
Sucks!

We're outta here!
Suckas!!!

aka Peggy at work @@

heather said...

Oooh...laura i like Peggy's Suckas idea...what type of candy is it that you'll be putting in their buckets?
Maybe...

"You've bloomed into one sweet young woman?"
or less serious
"Class of 2009--SWEET!"

Cheryl Houston said...

Taste of USA Update:

Louisiana is winning 8-2 over Utah.
Michigan is winning 7-3 over Washington.
West Virginia is winning 6-4 over Minnesota.

Where do you want to go? I want to go where ever you want to go.