The worst has happened! OK, OK, to be fair, there is world hunger, poverty, child abuse...so many things that are worse than what I'm about to share. But, in my world, right now, the discontinuation of my pretty puffy glittery gold stars is possibly the worst news possible! Yes, indeed, Nicole Crafts, the maker of my Glitzers gold stars, "dropped this item from our inventory in February of this year due to lack of demand..." said Suzanne M. Manzi, who responded to my desperate on-line plea to please tell me that I could still get stars.
I first heard tell of the possibility of discontinuation from my friend at the 7th Ave. Art Supplies store, who looked plagued when I popped in the other day to pick up my order, a 12-pack I had been waiting for for a week. "I have bad news..." she started. A woman in the store looked at her face, then at mine and quickly left the store, afraid.
"What??" I said, my stomach dropping, knowing this was the second week in a row she had been unable to get the stars. I was down to just little packages of leftover small stars floating around my house. I needed new packs, fresh new big ones to present proudly to deserving recipients.
"My rep can't get them..." she said, looking sad for me. "But," she said hopefully, "maybe it's just not popular around here? I have to check and see..." It was clear. We both guessed at the truth: only teachers bought these stars, teachers and me. And there was less and less money for teachers to spend on things like seemingly silly stars, less and less money being spent on seemingly "extra" rewards, especially these fancy pretty ones that stick strong, that last, their glitter adding a great glow to a moment, a day, a week, a life.
I cannot let this go without a fight. I have had too many people tell me these stars have lifted their spirits, that they needed just this, I see too many people wear their stars for months on end or put them in a place where, they tell me, it works again and again to remind them that they are deserving, that all their hard work at whatever they're trying is not for naught. This, I wholeheartedly passionately believe, is incredibly important.
PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
I am calling for all gold star receivers past or those hopeful to get them or give them in the future to pick up their pens or, more likely, press on their keyboards to tell Nicole Crafts how important this is, how much a little gold star can mean! I need you all to stand up and help me take a stand against the discontinuation of a necessary item, one I have been too lazy to tell the world about but that, now, out of necessity, out of which most good things are borne, I am finally ready to fight to preserve. It is no small thing, a star, even the small ones.
My own single explanation that I "bring a bit of bright light to people unexpectedly just for trying..." apparently did little to excite Ms. Manzi and make her reconsider. But her explanation, the "lack of demand..." for the gold stars gives me the goosing I have needed to get off my ass and fight. I know she is right, sales numbers say it all, of course, and intuition told me that gold stars were on the wane, that's why I've been giving them out fast and furiously! This is the problem! We aren't seeing each other, we aren't rewarding each other! This needs to change!
This is my plan, you're hearing it here first: please write to Ms. Manzi, inundate her in-box at smanzi@sbarsonline.com. We have to get her attention. There have to be more stars. People need them. This is on the order of a national emergency. Maybe I will even alert Obama. I think it is time that people know: gold stars are not being given, and that is just wrong.
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