Armed with a fine selection of supplies from our favorite home improvement warehouse, we took over Stations 32 and 36. It was an awesome day spent side-by-side with firemen and firehousers, improving two very deserving stations.

Fun Things We Learned:

Did you know that a fire engine and a fire truck are not the same thing? Fire engines carry and pump water. Fire trucks don’t.

In Texas it’s against OSHA codes for public service personnel, including fire fighters, to climb portable ladders exceeding six feet in height.

One of the great things about Firehouse is our commitment to making a difference – not just to the bottom line of our clients, but to make a difference in our communities and champion causes we believe in. Having reached my 10-year anniversary at Firehouse, I was entitled to take an entire week off to volunteer for a cause I deeply believe in.

Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast and the city of New Orleans way back in August of 2005, killing over 1,800 people and causing an estimated $81 billion in property damage. While much has been accomplished, there is still much more work to be done. Thousands of homes, business and churches lay in the same state they were back almost six years ago. As is the case in our society, once a catastrophe or natural disaster is off the front page, the victims and the destruction are mostly forgotten.

A team from my church, Legacy Church in Plano, TX, has been making an annual trip since the devastating hurricane to lend a hand and help rebuild homes, churches and hopefully some of the spirits of those who have lost so much. This past Sunday, July 17th we took 45 students and 12 adults for the week.

The construction work and painting were definitely tiring but fulfilling. The team was truly able to make a difference for a small church – All Nations Fellowship as we were able to finish the remodel of several offices, children’s areas and a few dorm rooms in their community center. By completing this work for them, this church will now be able to serve the spiritual and physical needs of their community for a long time to come.

The best experience, however, was the time I spent at the New Orleans Mission. Our church had the opportunity to lead the evening worship at the mission for around 100 homeless men and women. It was such a blessing for me to see a few lifted spirits and a renewed sense of hope that I think we were able to deliver those three nights. I spent each night alongside Lewis, a 59-year-old man who was displaced, along with so many others by the hurricane and flooding of Katrina. He has struggled ever since to rebuild his life and purchase a new home on the little income he can find from odd jobs and the social security he receives. Despite it all, he greeted me each night with a warm smile and a firm belief that all things work together for good.

I am not sure I would have the same sense of hope if I were in Lewis’ tattered shoes. As I hugged him good-bye on our final night of worship, I told him what a blessing he had been to me, and that I would continue to pray for him and his family. He assured me that I had blessed him too – I hope that is true. One thing I do know, and something I continue to realize is the truth in the old adage “the more you give, the more you receive”.

I found this article from The Guardian interesting.  You can’t debate it.  The Internet has given people a platform for anonymously spewing negativity and vitriol in a way they most likely wouldn’t when faced with a ‘real human.’

Psychologists call it ‘deindividuation’ – what happens when social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed.  It’s covert bullying, and it sucks. If you’re a parent of a kid who uses SM and dig into it, you’ll see it firsthand.

But I have found myself inspired by so many stories of how the Internet has been the vehicle for bringing people together for good.

I was struck by a story of a family who, after finding a paystub with someone’s identification hundreds of miles away from the site of a Midwest tornado, used the Internet to track down its owner, formed a relationship and lent assistance to a family who had lost all.  Similarly, I was blown away by the support that poured in to help Bertie County when @ProjectHDesign put the call out to their followers.

Then, there’s the Japan Earthquake that yielded too many social media miracles to count.  There’s organizations like Kiva. Social good websites aimed at kids. Even a program we helped create: 1 Million 4 Anna

There are two sides to every coin.  Here, both are readily evident.

The Internet has changed how we communicate: the way you use it, the way you teach your kids and companies to use it, can change the world…and each of us too.

And for the record, just because I hate it doesn’t mean I haven’t said it once or twice. I have. I’m not proud of it and had the heartburn to prove it.

So instead of settling for “good enough,” we press on and fight for something better. (Dial M for masochism)

The question is: why?

There’s apparently no real financial incentive for the agency since an awful lot of creatively average (or worse) agencies make buckets of money. Look no further than the AdAge’s 100 largest agencies in the country. A spotty showing of greatness to say the least.

If that’s not it, perhaps highly creative work is more memorable? Tell that to the Mentos guys. Or the Whisk “Ring around the collar” guys. Or Subway’s $5 foot long guys. Hammer someone’s brain enough and it’ll leave a mark.

Doesn’t make it right.

Here’s the deal: If you just slap a message out there, you’re not marketing or building a brand, you’re getting a task off your plate. It’s the equivalent of getting up in the morning, throwing on a hat and some sweats and going to work. Sure, it covers all the bits that need it but are you really going to impress?

If we don’t put time and energy and care into crafting interesting messages, why should we expect anyone out there to care? What better way to show consumers that your client really does appreciate their business and respects their time than by rewarding their attention with a compelling idea and execution.

And this gets to the crux of the answer to “why?”

If, as creative agencies and people, we really want to make a difference in our client’s brands, our industry and our companies, we need to constantly fight for something better.

A better strategy. A better idea. A better execution. A better typeface. A better director. A better…whatever. Because the ball can be dropped at any point along the way and suddenly what you’ve worked towards becomes remarkably average.

And average doesn’t make a difference.

That’s the ultimate reason why we willfully subject ourselves to the conflict, agony and meeting awkwardness that so often comes with pushing for a higher standard.

Ok, that and also because advertising would completely suck if we didn’t.

A little over a year ago, we launched the 1Million4Anna website.  An online and social movement dedicated to my dear friend and neighbor, Anna Basso.  At 16, she was stricken with a rare form of cancer, in November of 2009.  The movement was the result of the very caring and talented people here at the agency.  I have been moved to tears many times by the people here, for all of the heart and soul they have put forth on behalf of this beautiful young girl.

The goal, as the name suggests, was to raise 1 million prayers for Anna.  The concept based upon a joining together of all of us to unite in prayer each day at 12:12.  A time selected as a part of the concept to align with Roman’s 12:12.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

In addition, 12:12 allowed us to pray at the same time to show our solidarity, as Matthew 18:20 says,

“Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

We asked for people to pray at the same time as a symbol that we have “come together” in His name.

Well, on June 1, 2011, it happened.  We recorded our 1,000,000 prayer.  It was an amazing milestone and accomplishment.  I am thrilled to have been a part of this and so happy that there has been this very real and tangible evidence for Anna to see and feel as she continues on this difficult journey.

Like a child, I wanted throughout to count on this milestone, this movement to fix sweet Anna.  To magically make the cancer go away.  In exchange for these prayers and this dedication we would get what we want – our friend, cousin, niece, sister, our daughter healthy and active and able to resume her normal teenage years, so rudely interrupted by this hideous disease.

In a word, I wanted it to “work.”

Alas, my heart is so heavy as I write this, but that is not how this will work.  Anna still has cancer.  In fact, it has advanced.  And it is relentless.  And we now know that medicine will be unable to stop it.

We didn’t change Anna.

Instead, she changed us.  Whether she is with us for one more day or one more century, thousands have been changed because of Anna.

Because of her life, her battle, her struggle, thousands have been united for her, in God’s name.  And we will never be the same.  Because of her, we have seen God’s grace.  In her beautiful manner.  Her charm, her wit, her strength.  She has drawn so many to her, and if there is a miracle at work here, we may not see it right away.  But, those of us so deeply affected by her struggle will not be able to deny a feeling that we have now seen Christ in others and many of us now hope to live in a way that allows others to more readily see Christ in us.

We have also been reminded that there are no guarantees.  You are not entitled to tomorrow.  So, when your time here is done, ask yourself, will thousands be so deeply affected?  Will millions of prayers be lifted up on your behalf?  If so, you will have accomplished much, you will have lived a beautiful life.

And know that you will be in excellent company.

The three spots below are the first fruits of that partnership. There will undoubtedly be many more to come.

If you’re interested in becoming an organ donor, please visit TaylorsGift.org. And if you believe you already are a donor, we strongly suggest you double check to make sure.

All it takes is 90 seconds.

Keystrokes from Firehouse on Vimeo.

Popcorn from Firehouse on Vimeo.

Wasted Time from Firehouse on Vimeo.

While we appreciate whenever our peers recognize the work we do, this award just validates the work we are so proud to be a part of. A year ago today, Firehouse launched the 1 Million 4 Anna initiative with the simple goal of getting 1 million prayers for Anna Basso, our agency founder’s neighbor, as she battles Ewing’s Sarcoma. We knew Anna had an expert team behind her from Children’s Medical Center, but we also wanted to find a way encourage her through the power of prayer as she fought this tough battle.

One year later, Anna continues her brave fight, and we are up to 840,000 prayers and counting. We are so thankful to have the campaign honored this year and special thanks to the award show hosts, Chris Smith and James Hering, who did a great job of telling our story during the show. Because we launched 1 Million 4 Anna on the same day as last year’s DFWIMA Awards, the wonderful board members were kind enough to let us set up a table on site at this year’s event to help event attendees sign up at http://www.1millionprayers.com. We were so thankful for the great audience response to the 1 Million 4 Anna story and we’re excited to launch another push as we near the 1 million prayer milestone.

We haven’t quite reached a million, but we are getting closer. Please check out the site and “pledge” to pray everyday at 12:12 p.m. for Anna. Thanks again to DFWIMA for this great honor and to all the people who bring us closer to 1 Million 4 Anna everyday.

On Friday, Firehouse hosted its first ever Firehouse April Foos Tournament for charity. Actually, this foosball tournament is a well-grounded Firehouse tradition, but this was the first year we’ve opened it to the public and used it to make a difference. Firehouse invited clients, media reps, production vendors and other friends to come be a part of a two-on-two foosball tournament, in which all proceeds would benefit Taylor’s Gift, a foundation dedicated to increasing organ donation rates across the country. Three intense hours of food, foos and boos (for some) helped Firehouse generate $2,500 in donations for Taylor’s Gift. Can you say, “Gooooooooooolllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!”? We also had a large number of new sign-ups on the national registry for organ donors (Go to taylorsgift.org to sign up) which will help save many lives. A lot of people think that just because they sign the back of their drivers license they are registered to be a donor, but many states don’t do that anymore and there are often-times a few more hoops to jump through than that.

So a vuvuzuela size shout of gratitude to all who participated and contributed to the donation. Together we made a big difference to the folks at Taylor’s Gift and in turn, are helping to save lives of people across the country.

Our goal was to not only give some money to a great hospital, but also raise the prayer count on www.1millionprayers.com. Every day, Anna continues her battle and we continue to pray, with over 700,000 prayers and counting. As we approach the 1-year anniversary of launching this initiative on April 22, 2011, we hope to reach our goal of 1 million prayers for Anna.

Darah Bonham from Abolish Cancer helped kick off the Twitterthon bright and early on the morning of February 18^th. We would love to thank all the people who helped out by following @abolishcancer, retweeting the message and getting others involved in our goal. Although we started off slow in reaching 500, our momentum kept growing throughout the day. We were lucky enough to receive tweets and retweets from diverse Twitter users, including actresses like Angie Harmon, bands like Eli Young Band, and professional athletes, including Jermichael Finely and Michael Huff. We also received a lot of help (and tweets) from Anna’s sister, Patrice, and Children’s Medical Center.

Although we often use Twitter ourselves and for our clients, it was really awesome to see how this tool can be put to great use. We have been able to use technology to create a virtual prayer chain for Anna that reaches all over the world and find new ways to get our message to new audiences quickly.

We reached our goal around 7:00 PM on Friday night. The generous community of John Paul II High School, Anna’s school, also matched our donation to Children’s with a donation of their own.

Again, we are so thankful to Darah for starting this amazing movement to unite all charities, organizations and people to abolish cancer. In sixteen months, Darah has helped raise over $51,000 for cancer research just through tweeting.

We also want to thank Children’s Medical Center for continually providing expert care for Anna and all the other children battling cancer.

Thank you again to everyone who participated in our Twitterthon. We could not have reached our goal without your effort. Please keep praying and encouraging others to promise  to pray on the top left corner of her website.

Stay strong, Anna! We are still praying (and tweeting) for you!

So today a few members of the Interstate team went over to the Interstate All Battery Center to do some outrageous decorating for the upcoming holiday season. We set up a tree, cleaned the windows, plugged in the lights, hung green bulbs, sprayed fake snow, hung more green bulbs, sprayed more fake snow and made the store look very festive. We even set up a jar of green peppermint candies and gave the employees green “Santa” hats. As I was cleaning the windows, a bright and shiny Firehouse truth dawned on me. That is that Firehouse will do anything to help our clients look great, even if helping them look great means taking a few hours to decorate a store for the holidays.

What other types of “anything to look great” has Firehouse done for their client family? How about this, Firehouse took a simple request for three low-budget, low-production sales driving ideas for a frozen snack line, and delivered five even lower budget, smaller production ideas that would cheaply blow sales out of the proverbial water. Or how about when Firehouse got wind of a client’s internal issue over the visual of a branded NASCAR car, and then, in a pinch, delivered what is potentially the coolest, wildest, product centered, “Johnny on the spot messaging,” and “even people that don’t watch NASCAR would love this,” car design you’ve ever seen. That’s right, it’s amazing. Just last month Firehouse took a Mexican lucha-libre fight in Corpus Christi and flipped it for our client, Stripes. People left the venue, not even remembering who the luchadores were, but chanting “Stripes!” and sporting their red and white Stripes branded luchador face-paint.

So because of this little treasure of information that hit me while washing the ABC windows, I decided to take a step of my own, and washed the windshield on the car of an All Battery Center customer, courtesy of Interstate; because we’ll do anything to make our clients look great.

So if you’re looking for some branding or local store marketing or design or pretty much anything that’s beyond the average and above the norm, look no further than Firehouse. We’ll make you look great.