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Spring Calendar
March
National Nutrition Month
Invite a dietician or nutritionist from a local hospital to speak to your residents about healthy eating. Give free cholesterol screenings. Can you get a representative from a health food store who will talk about different vitamins and what you need of each? Write an article about nutrition in your newsletter. Host healthy cooking classes... if you don't have the space, can you use the kitchen at a local YMCA, cooking school or community center?
National Peanut Month
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are America's favorite candy. Hand a bunch out! Or...
Make your own peanut butter with neighborhood children. Have a peanut hunt in your club room or in the play area of your community. Put together some original peanut recipes and publish them in your newsletter (Kung Pao Chicken, chocolate cookies with peanuts, ice cream sundaes, etc.). Pretend you're on a plane trip and munch on peanuts while watching movies of exciting destinations.
National Blood Pressure Month
Offer free blood pressure screenings to residents. Ask a local hospital, doctor’s office, or health club to help.
Many hospitals have a speaker's network or public relations department just for community education. Host a seminar once a week and administer cholesterol and blood pressure screenings and a stress test. Fitness professionals, like aerobics instructors, can also lead discussions on healthy eating, beginning a spring exercise program, improving flexibility and more. Look in the yellow pages under Health Clubs if you don't already have a contact.
For more information, contact the National Heart, Lung & Blood Pressure Information Center at 301.251.1222; PO Box 30105, Bethesda, MD 20824.
American Red Cross Month
Organize a fund raiser and donate money to the Red Cross.
Get together a group of volunteer's willing to donate time to the Red Cross. Ask a local chapter of the Red Cross to teach CPR classes in your community.
Hosting CPR classes in your community also familiarizes potential prospects with your community. Check with the American Red Cross (in the white pages) for the feasibility of holding a class. You may also call the American Heart Association for promotional materials and/or posters at 1.800.242.8721.
First Week: -- Write Letters of Appreciation Week. Write a letter of appreciation for residents whose leases are up in June and July. Studies show that these residents are just beginning to consider moving (90-120 days in advance). A warm call today could improve your retention numbers this summer! (It's okay to wait until after turnover!)
First Week: -- Help Someone See Week. Ask an optometrist to give glaucoma screenings and collect old eye glasses to donate to the Lion's Club (look in yellow pages). LensCrafters also accepts old eye glasses.
1st: Peanut Butter Lover's Day. Serve Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to prospects and residents. Or, give out peanut butter crackers, available in bulk at warehouse grocery stores.
1st: National Pig Day.
Host a Pig Out On Pork barbeque.
Hold your "Not In My House" Party (see Kid's Corner, Spring Issue, 1996) and make pig noses for all of the attendees to wear. Or, get a live pig from a farm or pet store to stand with you at the entrance/exit to your community. Invite residents to "pig out" with you at an ice cream social.
2nd: Dr. Seuss' Birthday. Read Dr. Seuss books to neighborhood children after school. Put a green eggs and ham recipe in your newsletter. Fill a kiddie pool with water and load it with one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, and give out prizes (or money off the first month's rent for prospects) for each fish caught in the pool. Easier: Serve goldfish crackers.
4th: Don't Worry, Be Happy Day. Give smiley face balloons (or buttons) out to residents and prospects. Just blow up yellow balloons and draw smiley faces on them. Toys R Us has smiley face party favors -- tablecloths, napkins, plates, buttons, decorations, invitations, etc.
First Week: -- Podiatry Week. Ask a masseuse to give foot massages one evening. Give away pedicures. Ask a podiatrist to explain (or write a newsletter article) on healthy foot care.
5th: Couch Potatoes Change Your Ways Day. Begin a fitness program for those who are coming out of winter hibernation. Give free fat testing, and nutritional information. Start or renew your walking club (in our Profit Potentials book).
Or, working together with a local restaurant, put together a "spuds bar" where in a private room residents can top baked potatoes with yummy toppings.
Or, give out small bags of Baked Lays Potato Chips to prospects.
9th: Plant A Flower Day. Give out seed packets to prospects and residents (begin this the weekend before to maximize promotion dollars and effort). Ask your ad specialty provider for a company that can customize seed packets.
9th: Barbie's Birthday. Have a Barbie Doll (and Ken) drive for children in the hospital.
10th: Bell Invented The Telephone. Call and leave a happy message for residents who's leases are up in June and July. Studies show that these residents are just beginning to consider moving (90-120 days in advance). A warm call today could improve your retention numbers this summer!
Or, give phone cards to prospects.
Or, call back your be backs!
10th: Employee Appreciation Day. Host a breakfast or lunch for the staff. Let them sleep in, take extra time at lunch, or leave early.
Ask residents to write in who their favorite employee is and why. Give all participating residents a small gift as thanks. Use these testimonials when leasing apartments AND show them to your main office. It doesn't hurt to blow your own horn a bit!
11th: Spring Tune Up Your Car Day. Ask a local mechanic to stop by and give instructions on how to change oil, check the water in the battery, change a flat tire, etc.
Or, ask a local gas station to give your residents a free checkup. They'll change/add oil, add brake fluid, clean the windshield, add windshield wiper fluid, etc. Many Mobil stations have this service already in place. Maybe a Mobil service technician can do it for your residents on-site?
Or, give out discount coupons to your local Econo Lube or Jiffy Lube. (These places always have special discounts. Don't be nervous about asking!)
Or, ask a local high school/boy scout troop/football team to wash cars in your community. Residents pay a donation to the kids for having their cars washed. Or, your community can donate money to the kids and have residents’ cars washed for free. I've even heard of communities using their staff members to wash cars. How's that for service?
12th: First US Post Office Established in 1789. Kick off your "Our residents are first class" program today. Re-selling stamps to residents is easy. Just keep a stash in your office and ask residents to give you exact change. Call 1-800-STAMP24 and your postal carrier will deliver a batch right to your door.
13th: Uranus Discovered. Have a "star" or "out of this world" promotion and give out glow in the dark stars and planet stickers.
13th: Healthy Office Day. A new trend in leasing offices is to give out healthy snacks (granola bars, fruit, Boost or Nutri-grain Bars, raisins, etc.) instead of cookies. Try it for a week to see what kind of response you receive from residents and prospects. Many of the nicer hotels always have a bowl of fruit on the front desk.
Or, give blood pressure/cholesterol screenings, etc. to staff members today. Call the public relations department of your hospital or the Red Cross or fire department for suggestions on how to implement this. Some health clubs also have the equipment to do this, too!
Third Week: American Chocolate Week. Hold a contest for favorite recipes with chocolate as the main ingredient. Show Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Give each child in your community a Hershey bar wrapped in construction paper. Wrap $1 bills in with some of the bars. Put $5 in one lucky winner's bar.
17th: St. Patrick's Day. Leapin’ Leprechans! Have a St. Patty's Day party! See page 16 of Rent & Retain Spring, 1999 for the party plans. What about adding a Leprechaun Look A Like Contest?
Or, have an Irish Stew Cookoff. Serve soda bread and Irish Coffee. Paint the walkway to the party with washable green paint or sidewalk chalk leading to a pot of gold with a rainbow. Blarney and foolishness are part of the ingredients to a fun St. Patty's Day party.
The menu: Potato chips, shamrock cookies & cupcakes, lime sherbert and Irish Coffee. Play guess the weight of the Blarney Stone in the office. Spray paint a stone green, then take guesses in the office as to how much it weighs. Person closest to correct weight receives a prize.
Give out mini boxes of Lucky Charms.
Or, just wear green! Many party supply stores have cute stickers -- give one out to everyone who comes into your office.
Third Week: -- Coffee Lover's Week. Host a coffee bar at your community, meet at a local coffee pub, or give out coupons for coffee to residents and prospects.
Starbucks or your local coffee pub may be able to set up a portable espresso bar in your office or club room. I have also seen independently owned portable coffee bars. Every one I have seen has been outside a sporting event or big seminar. If you can't find one that way, a caterer or event planner should know. Check the yellow pages.
20th: Big Bird's Birthday. Watch Sesame Street videos with children... or give children Big Bird stickers.
20th: First Day of Spring. Kick off your "Grown At Home" contest where residents compete for prizes for their home-grown plants. Give prizes for biggest zucchini, reddest tomato, prettiest window flower garden, etc. Hold the judging sometime in July.
21st: Master Gardener Day. Kick off your Adopt-A-Garden program today! (Refer to our Profit Potentials book.)
21st: Captain Kirk's Birthday. Buy Life-size stand ups (Advanced Graphics, 1-925-432-2262) of Star Trek characters. Do a "Beam Me In, Scotty" leasing promotion. One community in Portland hung a Star Trek shower curtain in their model... and attracted more residents in the demographic they were looking for -- single males, ages 22-29.
Or, show a Star Trek movie in the club room.
22nd: National Goof Off Day. Watch neighborhood children today as a favor to parents. Or, dress in crazy clothes!
24th: Harry Houdini's Birthday. Sponsor a magic show on site. Look in the yellow pages under "Magician." Some community colleges offer magic classes... maybe that instructor would be willing to teach some tricks one night at your community?
25th: Pecan Day. Serve Pecan Pie, Pecan Sandies, or Pecan Clusters today in the leasing office.
28th: Clean Out Your Closets Day. Have a drop off area for Red Cross or Salvation Army donations. Or, host a yard sale.
29th: Cola Cola Was Invented in 1886. Coke is the #1 seller among soft drinks in the US. Donate all of the proceeds from your coke machines to charity this week. Or, give free Cokes to residents and prospects.
30th: Vincent Van Gogh's Birthday. Have the staff wear straw hats... this is the perfect day to kick off your "artists" model where you show the second bedroom in 2BR models as something other than a 2BR... an art room, home office, exercise room, crafts room, library/den, etc.