Little Bo-Peep and Facebook

I am really not a fan of Facebook for kids, especially not for kids under 13, Facebook’s age requirement, but it did help in tracking down a beloved pet.

Little Bo-Peep

Over the summer, my 13 year-year-old niece’s 3-year-old Maltese Yorkie mix, Little Bo-Peep or Bo for short, dug her way out under the fence in her backyard and escaped to travel the neighborhood. Once my niece and her family noticed the dog got loose, the search was on. Where, oh where, did this little three-pound dog wander off to?

My sister and brother-in-law and nephew searched the neighborhood, knocking on doors, looking for the cute little dog. Even their neighbors and my parents helped with the search.

Once it got dark, after several hours of searching, they decided to call it a night. My niece was beside herself. She was crying non-stop and couldn’t stop thinking about her little dog. She even slept by the front door, waiting for little Bo to come home. Bo didn’t come back. The next day the family searched again, looking for the dog. My niece made flyers with a photo of her dog and put them up around her neighborhood. She was so worried Bo got hit by a car or someone took Bo and made her their own pet. Bo didn’t have a collar on her with a name and number. My niece had given Bo a bath before she got away and forgot to put her collar back on. Bo didn’t have the special microchip locator in her either,  so there was no way for someone who found her to bring her home.  

Besides posters and searching, my niece decided to post a photo of Bo on her Facebook account with “Please pray for Bo. She’s missing and I hope she’s OK and will return soon." She got several responses and people saying they would pray for Bo’s safe return.  

On the second day, my two daughters and I also helped in the search for the dog. We drove around the neighborhood and nearby parking lots. I also shared my niece’s Facebook post, just in case any of my friends saw her dog. I also looked online at the local animal shelters and the Sheriff’s website for lost animals, along with Craig’s List. We didn’t see Bo on any of the sites. I also posted information about Bo on the sites. We prayed for little Bo to somehow find her way back home.

On the third day, my niece got a Facebook message from a friend. The friend thought Bo was at her house. My niece didn’t want to get overly excited, because someone earlier thought they had her dog and it wasn’t Bo. The friend sent a text with a photo. It sure looked like Bo, but her friend lived about 15 minutes away, how could Bo have traveled that far? The friend said her brother was driving down the road, just next to my niece’s subdivison, and saw this little dog crossing four lanes of traffic, nearly getting run over. So he pulled over and put the dog in his car and brought her home. Bo was given love, attention and a bath.

The interesting part of this story is that my niece had just become friends with the girl on Facebook about two weeks prior to Bo disappearing. They were friends in kindergarten and hadn’t connected for years. If you know how Facebook works, not every post everyone shares is seen by all their friends, so this was pretty amazing.

When my niece finally reunited with her lost puppy, they were both so happy to see each other. And I had to admit, it was good my niece had a Facebook account, even though I am always telling her 13 is too young to be on Facebook.  

Recognize People Who Go Above and Beyond "White Dove Service Awards"

 

As a mom of two little girls, I try to set a good example of helping others and serving others. I think it’s important to teach our kids that everything is not just about them. It’s hard though because we are in the “me” generation and people feel they are entitled to things. This entitlement mentality can be costly and have a negative impact of society. That’s why when people exceed others expectations it can really have a positive impact on everyone around them and can truly make a difference in their lives.

My family was on a road trip recently and we were in line to pay the toll. When we got to the toll booth operator, he told us someone ahead of us had paid for us. It wasn’t something we were expecting and all we could do was smile and say “Wow!” We felt special and it made our day. We even told others about what happened to us that day. How one person’s thoughtfulness and dollar touched all four of us in the car.

I am fortunate to work for a person, Kris Hartland, who likes to go above and beyond for her employees and her clients. She enjoys “delighting” people and giving people “white glove” service or what we call at our company “white dove” service. We want to make our clients feel extra special. The funny thing is it not only makes them feel special, but we also feel good because we know we are doing our best for them.

We decided to start something new this past month to recognize our co-workers who we see going above and beyond the call of duty. We started giving out “White Dove” service awards. These awards are in recognition of our employees who exceed “white dove” service to our clients or to others in our office. An example would be an employee working on a project even after work hours to get something done for a client or maybe helping out with something that isn’t exactly in their job description.

Anyway, these awards are very encouraging to our employees because they get recognized for their good deeds and it’s also fun because our boss has a drawing at the end of each month for those nominated and they can win a $50 gift card.

Because my boss likes to encourage this positive behavior she thought we should start recognizing people in the community who go above and beyond in serving others. To highlight people in the community, we are using social media and Facebook. When you see someone go above and beyond the call of service, you can recognize them and nominate them for the “White Dove” service award. My boss wants to include the community in the $50 gift card drawing at the end of the month.

I think this is the perfect time to start looking for those who give “white dove” service, especially since we are coming into the hustle and bustle of the holidays and all the holiday shopping. I am hoping there are tons of people who can be recognized for a job better than well done.

If interested in nominating someone for a “white dove” service award go to www.facebook.com/trustbiz and put the person’s name and what they did to deserve this honor. If you want you can even include a photo of them. Come back to the Facebook page the last Friday of the month starting in December and see if your nominee won. As we kick off the holidays…let’s build community spirit. Just think if everyone took the time to help and serve others a little bit more rather than be served how our world would be a little bit brighter.

Click here to go the Trust Business Systems Facebook Page to nominate a person.

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