The holiday season is upon us, and this year, I want to throw some consideration at our homeless neighbors. What do Halloween and Thanksgiving, Christmas and News Years Day mean to those living in the Tunnel? I asked.
The general consensus is: they’re a reminder of the absence of family. A lot of tunnel dwellers are parents of estranged children, and the holidays are but another reminder of how much things have changed for the worse.
Ah, but do not fret! The holidays also serve as a motivation to make some changes for the better! More than a few folks I spoke with said they’re usually more willing, during the holiday season, to seek treatment, turn over new leaves, and re-establish connections with family members. That’s pretty inspiring.
In light of these forthcoming motivators for positive change, The Tunnel is setting a goal for the holidays: we want to reach 1000 subscribers by the end of the year! We’ve been growing and gaining since getting The Tunnel off the ground earlier this year, and I believe 1000 is a reasonable goal if we have your help. Here’s what you can do to help make it happen…
TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT!
It’s really that simple. Your friends don’t know me. Your family doesn’t know me (okay, some of you—your families do know me), but they definitely know you better. Your word-of-mouth referral means far more than my ramblings could possibly convey to your people. So here’s the plan:
Step 1. Brainstorming—think about what you could say to your friends/family/co-workers that might inspire them to help out The Tunnel newsletter and the End of the Tunnel project. Odds are, if they live in America, they’ve seen the ravages of homelessness as well. If you don’t really know what to say, just start by talking about it, then mention the effort you’re putting forth to help this outreach effort get people off the street for good.
Step 2. Tunnel Tuesday! Give it one day a week. Make this the day when you dedicate some time to the mission of getting the word out about the newsletter. If you’re on any social media platform, this is your time to shine! At the bottom of this newsletter, you’ll notice the Facebook, X, and Instagram icons. Tunnel Tuesdays are the days to click those little guys and “like” the pages, then share them with your people. These pages are barely in existence currently, but this is the age of social media, so we have to use them. If your kids have social media accounts, they can do us a huge favor by just spreading the word to have their friends like those pages as well. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have them use social media as a beneficial tool and not just a toy? Talk to them—Tunnel Tuesday… it could be a thing.
Step 3. The last step is Ask Wednesday. No, not Ash Wednesday, Ask Wednesday. It’s amazing how much we get out of life by simply asking. After the blitz on Tunnel Tuesday, the final step for each week is to ask people to subscribe. Make your goal to get some number of people to subscribe just by asking them to. If you think you can get five people to subscribe, great! If just two, that’s awesome! Sometimes, all it takes for someone to get involved is for someone to invite them. So, on Ask Wednesday, your mission is to ask people to subscribe.
“What’s in it for me?” you ask. Well, here’s the good part: for every new subscriber you wrangle up, you get two points, and at the end of the year, you can trade those points in for a giant pile of gratitude! Remember, we’re not doing this to feel good about ourselves for doing something nice. We’re not getting high on our own generosity, patting ourselves on the back for being such wonderful people. We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do when our neighbors fall on hard times. Again, from now until New Year’s Day, I’m asking for an hour a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to help move this project forward by simply spreading the word and asking for people to subscribe for what is essentially five bucks a month. I know children who can afford that.
So please, impress me! Let’s see what we can get done by working on these three steps. I think it’s a reachable goal if we all do our part. Let’s try! Who knows—maybe we’ll get a few more people off the street for Christmas this year!
Thanks again for your subscription. It really is changing lives.