The CosmiKids™
Connection
November
2008
It’s
a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!
"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine...?"
I
WAS DRIVING THROUGH
my hometown neighborhood just the other day with my older sister, Michele,
who happened to be in Pittsburgh for her Baldwin High School reunion. I just
happened to be in town at the very same time for some business meetings of
the CosmiKids kind. We met my older brother and his wife Jeanne for a fun
lunch at his Country Club where we reminisced and caught up on our individual
lives. Our lunchtime gathering was filled with the warm glow of reunited hearts
that had been separated by thousands of miles. We had not all been together
since my nephew’s wedding, six years prior. My younger brother was unable
to meet us that day for lunch, so we were one short of having all four, the
only four, living members of my immediate biological family together again.
Our lunch hour turned into well past two and
after we parted, shared hugs and exchanged pleasantries, Michele and I found
ourselves with several free hours to spend together before she needed to ready
herself for her evening’s festivities.
We decided to drive through our old neighborhoods,
past our elementary and middle schools and along the winding, hilly streets
that were lined with houses that were one-time homes to friends, neighbors
and childhood sweethearts. We laughed, sometimes with a bittersweet trail-off,
as we recounted the times we spent together as children in our neighborhood.
It was amazing how small the houses looked, especially
the one we both came home to from the hospital as newborn babies. Michele
arrived in the summer and I arrived four years later in the midst of the golden-hued
autumn leaves. My brother Bill arrived nine years before me and Jim, nine
years after me in our house on Rolling Hills Road.
As we soaked up the sights during our trip down
memory lane and later stopped for a cup of java (a skinny latte, I call it
now), I began to share bits and pieces of my life events that had transpired
over the past months, and more recently during the past weeks, as I traveled
to New York and Pittsburgh on business
“We’ve enjoyed yet another interesting
turn on our path of development,” I began with a smile. She’d
heard that before and yet this time, she seemed a bit more interested to hear
what I had to say, as she put down her coffee on the table between us and
began to page through the power point booklet that I had just laid in front
of her. Maybe it was my joyful demeanor or the colorful spiral-bound booklet
beckoning her attention, but Michele was definitely all ears. It was so fun
to share.
“CosmiKids is entering the television market!”
I announced proudly. With nary a blink, she smiled and continued to flip through
the pages outlining our television proposal. She looked up from her reading
and happily declared, “This is so well put together, Judy!”
I watched with interest as she leafed through
the pages that Jennifer and I, with Sandie and John’s input, had worked
on, outlining our numerous distribution channels – the CosmiKids’
retail enrichment centers, our Inspired Parenting magazine, our popular IP
radio show and the web presence for our in-home IP play groups. The spiral-bound
Powerpoint that she held in her hands detailed how they all built on one another
to promote our on-going mission of empowerment and the education of kind,
loving hearts. Television seemed to magically present itself as the next logical
step. It seemed to be a destined path, in many ways.
“As I look back over our last five years
of development with CosmiKids, it seems as though we’ve been preparing
for this all along.” I said to Michele as we left the coffee shop. “I’ve
even gotten calls from Warner Brothers wanting to talk about a television
show.” I thought about the chances of an unsolicited call like that
happening for people in the industry and quietly exclaimed, “Imagine
that, they called us!”
It made sense though, I thought to myself, they
had to have seen the quality of the content and brand that we’d built.
They’d also said they’d seen me in Deepak Chopra’s movie
“Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” and may have noticed my on-camera
ease. An innovative CosmiKids television presence could serve to highlight
all the areas of our company and reach more parents and children than we could
possibly do on our own with one or two bricks and mortar locations, 20,000
magazines or even our internet-based radio show.
Coming out of my reverie, I continued to share
with her as we drove around town the positive meetings we’ve had with
Warner Brothers, PBS, Family Communications, Nickelodeon and large animation
houses. “We’ve garnered funding interest, production capabilities,
collaborative possibilities and we’ve even forged important relationships
with large publishing houses, educational foundations and universities.”
I continued.
I finally took a breath and smiled, “It’s
only a matter of time.” Michele looked at me with a sure nod.
And to think these realizations congealed in
my hometown neighborhood with my sis at my side. It was a beautiful day.
Stay tuned for more adventures next month about
what’s unfolding along our business path. You can be sure to find them
documented here, cosmically-inspired.
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine...?
It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine...?
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we're together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?
- from the song “It’s a Beautiful
Day in the Neighborhood”
by Fred M. Rogers
