What’s your dream?

In February we honor some inspiring and passionate leaders. We celebrate the accomplishments of two presidents who changed the world by putting their lofty dreams in action. We commemorate Black History Month by recalling and recommitting ourselves to the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “I have a dream today."

What is your dream today? In what ways are you taking up that which you believe and putting it into action? Many of you are leaders already. Many of us can be leaders by living out our convictions. There is no quantifying the positive and life-changing effect of one individual who puts his or her dreams for tomorrow into practice today . . . if those dreams involve the betterment of even one life on this planet.

No offense to Punxsutawney Phil or Cupid . . . they make February a lovable month (and for those of us enduring sub-zero temps, there’s nothing else too lovable about it). But let’s take some time in February to think about how great we can be in our work with youth, and how we are likely inspiring the leaders of tomorrow with our dreams today.

The good news is, we have one extra day this year to make February a truly great and noble month.

Baby and the Great Parking Ticket Caper

Kevin Mann’s Story

Kevin shared this with us . . . a particularly realistic situation encountered by one of his students, who wrote about it as follows:

Getting out of a parking ticket can be a long and frustrating process. But if you bring your RealCare® Baby to traffic court with you, you’ll do just fine. I can tell you from firsthand experience that my $50 parking ticket was dismissed in court due to my Baby’s presence.

The first and most important step to this is to overcome the pure and utter embarrassment when entering a full courtroom with your Baby and carrier in one hand and your parking ticket in the other. You must walk in with confidence and find a seat. Sitting in the front is the way to go. You want absolutely everyone in the room to see you, a 17-year-old, taking care of this child while trying to fight a parking ticket.

Another important step is to calmly answer all of the curious questions from onlookers—especially bailiffs (they are the eyes and ears of the place; they will ensure that you and your Baby’s news is spread throughout the courtroom). You will eventually be called to plead guilty or not guilty to the judge; this may take some time. It is almost guaranteed that your child will make frequent noises throughout the waiting period. When it does, be sure to smile and gracefully care for your RealCare® Baby while waiting for your name to be called.

When you are ultimately called upon, it is all right to leave your child in the arms of a friend or relative who has accompanied you to traffic court. When facing the judge, you make your plea of not guilty or guilty and then choose whether you would like a trial or a conference. I personally stated “not guilty” with a conference.

After your plea, you are sent to another individual to deal with your case, most likely the district attorney. You will be asked to wait for your name to be called again. What this experience has taught me is that the district attorney is usually a big softie, especially for RealCare® Babies. While waiting to be called upon, repeat prior steps by tending to your Baby and answering all onlookers’ questions and concerns with a smile.
 
When you hear your named called, politely state that it is you they are calling to and don’t forget to bring your RealCare® Baby with you when going to see him or her. At this point, upon seeing you, the district attorney will say something along the lines of, “I have already subliminally dismissed you, you are free to go and make sure to take care of that baby.”

At this, you smile appreciatively and thank him or her profusely. You are now free of the ticket and are free to go. With the time and money you saved, you may now go somewhere baby-friendly to treat yourself and your RealCare® Baby.

- submitted by Kevin Mann
Shoreham Wading River High School
Shoreham, New York

EDITORS NOTE: We do not condone using RealCare® Baby to sway a court’s decision on legal matters but we sure find this entertaining. The enterprising student who wrote this gets high marks for creativity (and charm in the courtroom).

Enter and Win—New Contest for 2008

We print your story and you get a chance to win free product! Tell us a little bit about your program and what makes it special. Send us a photo with some chicken scratch next to it. Draw us a picture. Call us and we’ll take the notes for you!

Winners will be chosen by random drawing at the end of the year. Lots of great products from us to you just for bragging up your program and sharing ideas that other program leaders might be able to use. Besides, the more you contribute to this newsletter, the less of our blah blah blah you have to read. Everybody wins!

Include your name and contact information, and a photo if possible—of either you or your program in use—and email your story to newsletter@realityworks.com.

1. This contest is open to all organizations (not individuals) who are involved in educating people in life skills and health programs that could benefit from Realityworks products. The author of the story must be 18 years or older.
   
2. One story per organization may be submitted for entry into the contest. An organization may submit additional stories but they will not be entered into the contest. The first story received by Realityworks, Inc. from an organization will be deemed the entry for the contest.
3. All entries must be received via e-mail no later than midnight on December 31, 2008 for entry into the contest. Entries must be submitted to newsletter@realityworks.com.
4. All entries must include the name of the author of the story, the name of the organization submitting the entry, the organization’s mailing address and telephone number and the following acknowledgement that the author wrote the story on behalf of the organization and that any prize won from submission of the story will belong to the organization and not the author of the story. Failure to include this information with the story will disqualify the story from entry in the contest.
5. The winning organization will be announced in the January 2009 newsletter.
6. Shipping costs are included in the prize.
7. Realityworks, Inc. reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal value.

Tools You Can Use
Product Support at your service

Unlike some companies, you can call the Realityworks product support line and get a real live person to help you with your product concerns. They can talk you through just about any concern or problem you're having with your Realityworks products.

In addition to the one-on-one help, we share their product support tips every month right here by the clover (because we’re lucky to have such great product support technicians, of course).

Product support hours are Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time. Call 800.830.1416 or +1.715.830.2040.

Product Support Tip O' the Month

Cord confusion?
Be sure you’re charging Babies correctly with the charging station.

This is a question many owners of RealCare® Baby II-plus are faced with. There you are, you have a number of Babies, and they all need to be charged. You have the orange charging station, a large power cord and the smaller power cord that comes with Baby.  Now you are faced with the question, what plugs into what? Remember, not all power supplies are created equal. You must be sure to identify the correct power cord before charging your Babies; otherwise they may not charge properly.

The individual charger is designed to charge only ONE Baby and should NOT be plugged into the orange charging station. Identifying the individual charger is easy; it has only one part—the transformer box plugs directly into an outlet, and there is a thin cord that runs from the transformer into the individual Baby.

The larger power supply and orange charging station are designed to charge up to five Babies. This power supply should ONLY be plugged into the orange charging station. The power supply comes in two separate parts—the transformer box is connected by two cables. One cable plugs into a wall outlet and the other cable plugs into the orange charging station.

And now you know how to power up! Remember what Superman’s father told him: “Use your power wisely, son.”