Thumball Goes To College

Thumball is making waves on campuses and with co-eds. At first they arrive on the scene and get casually investigated. Then they are used for juggling or extreme catch.

Eventually however the players read and think about what's on them and begin to play with interest. Then the fun starts and everyone is clamoring for more Thumball.

Icebreaker, Who Are You? and Meet & Greet Thumball are perfect for orientation and social events to get students interacting and feeling less awkward.

Emotion Mania and Move Your Body Thumball get grabbed up by drama departments and PE classes. Act out feelings, exaggerate movements and learn about body language. You couldn't refrain from laughing if you wanted to.

Category Mania Thumball can get competitive and surprises everyone by how challenging it can be to name things in categories quickly and accurately. Name as many flowers or birds or noisy things as you can and just try not to stammer.

Virtues and Values Thumball really inspires personal thought and reflection. Three attributes are revealed under your thumb and you decide if you have them, if you observe them in others or if you would like to have them. This activity changes with age and is appreciated by families, counselors and coworkers.

Catch Peace Thumball inspires students to learn more about world geography, languages and cultures. Find on the map the countries that speak Malay or Persian. Enjoy trying to pronounce the word peace in them too.

We are pleased to see Thumball's reach expand and whether they are used for learning and communicating or juggling and radical acts of catch it brings people together. That is our ultimate goal to come together and recognize our similarities and differences without the need for judgement.

Can a ball do that? We say "Yes". Now we just need to get the warring factions on our planet to play catch and maybe they will come together too.

Atlanta, School Counselors and Sunsets

Just returned from ASCA, the American School Counselors Association's National Conference in Atlanta. Wonderful weather, blue, blue skies, warm temps, low humidity and fantastic accommodations. Negotiating Atlanta was a breeze and southern helpfulness and hospitality were everywhere. Thumball was a welcome addition to the event's exhibition floor where we received praise and thanks for expanding the product options available for guidance and career counselors.

Sounds pretty awesome, almost pollyanna but I could find things to complain about if encouraged yet what would be the point. I realized that at previous trade show events I became very concerned that the costs of participating would be greater than the return. I would lose myself in making calculations worried we could not possibly sell enough Thumballs to even break even with travel, exhibit, shipping and equipment costs, let alone the time away from our other responsibilities. But this is not the true point of attending a trade show.

I inhaled deeply, looked at my wonderful husband who can see the bright side of every possible situation and stopped my silliness. It is the poverty mentality my parents taught me so well, that " balance the books" thinking as the only measure of success, a philosophy that serves no one really but the books.

The ASCA attendees were excited, motivated and increasingly creative with their thinking when discovering our creation, Thumball. The top three sellers were the Icebreaker, Who Are You? and Emotion Mania which all promote social relationships, connection with our feelings and healthy ways to express them. These dedicated counselors are assisting students in need or at times of crisis and our product is helping. It's hard to place only a monetary value on that kind of work.

The counselors that had already used Thumballs visited our booth to say "My students love these; Thumballs work really well to motivate my withdrawn students; I use them at home as much as school because they are so much fun." Gratifying to hear for sure, but still our business needs to make money to survive. Then I thought, wow, there are over 350 Thumballs out there in America now doing their job and selling themselves and we can rest assured that money is in escrow for our future needs.

It is like our visit to Atlanta when I thought we should be rushing off to the Georgia Aquarium, The World of Coke and the Underground in order to get the maximum return on our trip I had to stop and take a breath. Turns out it was the night we never left our hotel which was best of all. From our 24th floor room we witnessed the Atlanta skyline transform from blues to yellow to pinks and orange in a dazzling array of shapes and images that went on for hours.

We could scarcely catch our breath at the beauty of this city and the wonder of earth's cycles . I remembered that all things are possible and we get chances every day to make a profit and sell merchandise but the sky that evening will never look exactly that way again and there is no price on a perfect golden sunset shared with the one you love, like Visa reminds us that my dear friends is priceless.

At a Loss for Words? Thumball can provide some.

A friend of a friend is Uncle to a youngster diagnosed with Autism. "At times it can be difficult to know what to do. He doesn't communicate verbally and I am at a loss for words when I am with him." Uncle reports. He took a chance on Thumball™ and bought the Animals design and the Emotion Mania Thumball™. His nephew readily received them and began turning it all around and looking at each panel.

Now there was a place to start so Uncle said "Can you show me a dog, the mouse, an animal that flies or has a tail? To his sweet surprise his nephew could do all of those things, smiles began to show and the fun continued for hours.

The Emotion Mania Thumball™ gave Uncle the chance to be silly and act out facial expressions and body language which mesmerized his nephew and soon he was trying to make faces too (a challenging concept for some) and this lasted through the day.

A simple ball engineered to stimulate communication had done it's job. The creativity that flowed on came from Uncle and nephew and a meaningful way to play and interact. Ready to play? It's your turn!