Soita Mummolle


soita mummolle street action#5

Hei folks!

the second last Street Action of the campaign took place today and as usual we hunted many great support photos. We were quite much helped by Pink’s concert in Kaisaniemenpuisto, so that we found the park conveniently packed of people in good mood.

I want to thank everybody we met today, plus of course Krista and Karolina who were today’s volunteer photographers and kept me good company!

The most of the pictures from today’s Street Action are already published in the photogallery section. There are still few missing, from Krista’s camera, so if you don’t find yours yet please be patient and give us girl the time to exchange files. 🙂

Now looking forward to Friday! I am going to be interviewed about the campaign by both Vartti and Kirkko&Kaupunki, and I’ll reveal to the press some previously unreleased details about Soita Mummolle Päivä, which -I remind you! – it’s gonna take place on 11.8.2010.

Stefania



Ready to be back, live and kickin’

Dear all,

my holidays are almost over and soon the final rush of the campaign will make my life very busy. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to upload to Flickr the second batch of pictures from the last Street Action, but you can see them on our Facebook Page.

11th of August, Soita Mummolle Päivä, is coming so quickly, but before that there will be still some things to do:

  • Soita Mummolle Street Action #5, on Wednesday 21.7
  • Soita Mummolle Street Action #6, on Wednesday 4.8 (be sure don’t miss one of these last two Street Actions!)
  • Knitting guerrilla on week 31: knitted hearts attached to an info flyer about upcoming Soita Mummolle Päivä will be “forgotten” on metro and tram seats… let’s see who is going to catch them! They are handmade hearts coming from supporters all over the world, Netherlands, USA, Australia

On the organizational side, I still need to define the last details of Soita Mummolle Päivä with my collaborator Teemu Laajasalo, while contracting a cooperation with Sonera came to a very good result: we are going to have about 7-10 phones to use for free on Soita Mummolle Päivä (unfortunately, no international calls allowed… sorry, my foreigners friends!) and our signs will be hanging for about 2 weeks in 2 Sonera Shops, in Kamppi and Citykäytävä.

On public relations’ side I need to seriously sit down and write the press release for Soita Mummolle Päivä. Anyway, one good result was already achieved, since – after the articles on Peppar.fi and Voi Hyvin – I will be interviewed by Vartti about the campaign next Friday. Perhaps, they will even bring their photographer along to take pictures of me, I almost feel embarassed! :O

SOITA MUMMOLLE, HELSINKI!

Stefania



4th soita mummolle street action… and now some holidays

Today the 4th Soita Mummolle Street Action took place and it was a record of people donating their photo: 76 is the number-in-progress, and tomorrow I will receive more photos from the other participants… we are probably well over 100 in one day!

I want to thank all of today’s “models” and our action-photographers Duong, Päivi, Heikki and Annaleena, that joined me at the last moment and boosted up nicely the whole action!

You can see the first part of the pictures from Flickr already now, while the second part will be published probably tomorrow.

I leave you with more good news before the holidays: crochet hearts for the guerrilla campaign are coming from USA, Australia and Netherlands, and I already received at home around 70. By the way, if you would like to donate some crochet heart – especially if you live in Finland – contact me for more info via e-mail at soita.mummolle[at]gmail.com or check this note on the Facebook Page.
Stefania


soita mummolle street action #2

The second Street Action took place on Wednesday, among some problems: I was sick and I couldn’t participate in person and the weather seemed quite uncertain until the very end. But thanks to the efforts and the energies of Anu, Jussi, Duong and Yan (thank you very much guys!), who volunteered for this Action everything turned out very fine and we got more support pictures as planned!

Since nobody of them took part in a Street Action before, they said that the beginning was a bit hard: they didn’t know how to stop people and they were feeling shy. But as soon they managed to collect the first photos they became bolder and energized, and convinced more and more people to donate their support picture. Quite successful was the idea to propose group pictures, so even the most reluctant people ended up participating. And once that a group took a picture, also other groups of friends c alled our brave guys and asked to be portraited. 🙂

The team was quite “itinerant”, in only one hour they took pictures in Esplanadi, Mannerheimintie, Ruttopuisto and Kamppi. And it was rather international too: 50% Finnish, 50% foreigners! So, not knowing finnish is just a minor problem, if you are foreigner and you want to participate (I am foreigner myself and I never had bad moments).

So, let’s get ready for the next Street Action on 16th June:  don’t be shy and don’t find excuses, I can promise you that it’s fun, you meet great people and you’re also doing good!  🙂  So, I hope to see you there!
In the meanwhile you can have a look at the great pictures from the last Action on our Facebook Page.

Stefania



a great week just ended… let’s keep up this pace until 11th august!

The intensive efforts of last week payed off, the campaign is going great!

The first two external articles appeared on peppar.fi, who took a chance to make very nice interviews with people about how often they call their gradparents, and on Aalto Design Factory’s website (I know, my office is located there, but I swear I didn’t bribe anyone to talk about this!). I should hit the local library and see if some of the press releases I sent to some magazine titllated press’ curiosity, but it might be too early, since I targeted monthly mags so far.
The next step would be getting some nice “lukijan kuva” of the Street Actions or of a Soita Mummolle billposted sign on Metro… I mean, the person who sends the photo might even win some money… but dear readers, I haven’t suggested you anything… 😛

We also got the first couple of positive tweets, let’s hope soon to have more! But the best satisfaction coming from the net was today’s 1000th fan on the Facebook page (and counting)!

Forgetting the press and social media side for a moment, I also wanted to update you about the “Laajasalo adventure”. Together with the super active girls of Sofia-We-Care and some volunteering friends, we spent Friday night in Laajasalo’s Sofia Palvelukoti, preparing the “grannies’free hugs” event. Duong Pham organized all of this: she managed to recruit 15 of us and taught us to fold beautiful origami lily (we folded a full shopping bag overnight!), that were offered as present to the passers-by in the Laajasalo Päivä local fair on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, very few grannies from Sofia house were bold enough to give the free hugs during the fair, so I picked up some of my Soita Mummolle signs and started an improvised Street Action to accompain the lilies’giveaway.

It was a lucky choice, since it allowed me to take more nice pictures and do very good networking: I exchanged my business card with a member of the Finnish parliament who was very interested in the campaign, Arja Karhuvaara (and she also donated a support picture during the Action), and I talked with the local Martat and another seniors’ house of the island. Now we are thinking to organize a “knitting&sauna night” in Sofia Palvelukoti, inviting the Martat and the grannies from both the seniors’homes, plus everybody who share this hobby and wants to join us: the idea is to knit as many hearts as possible, while filling the gap between grannies and younger people that enjoy knitting, steaming hot sauna and perhaps some slice of jolly good apple pie. Tiina Kuisma, the enthusiastic and energetic director of Sofia, suggested the idea and the collaboration, introducing me to her Laajasalo’s fellows.

These knitted hearts will have a very special “guerrilla” role before Soita Mummolle Päivä… but no more revelations, otherwise it won’t be a surprise!

Stefania



Soita Mummolle Street Action #1 was a great kickstart!

Today the first of the Soita Mummolle Street Actions took place in the centre of Helsinki: thanks to the great weather and the cheerful spirit of the participants who showed up to the flash-mob the Action was the best kickstart one could wish!

One team in Kamppi and one team in Esplanadi, we collected many support pictures today, causing surprise, smiles and interest in many passers-by. You can check already almost all the pictures in lower resolution from Facebook, while on Flickr you can find so far most of the hi-res pictures from Esplanadi.
I am waiting for the hi-res pictures to be sent back to me from the other “action-photographers”, so if you want to download the photo of you we took just be patient for some more few days! 🙂

Over 70 people shown their support to the campaign in one hour, donating their picture: so, if you are reading, thank you very much! The mood was nice and some of you were so enthusiast that we got a lot of positive energy. 🙂
The other big “thank you” goes to the action-photographers of today, Maija, Ville, Yanhaun, Anne and Dhiraj: you were great and you’ve done a very good job!

For everybody who is interested to join us in the next round, the calendar of the next Street Actions is this:
2.6
16.6
30.6
21.7
28.7
4.8

I will publish soon the event page on Facebook, and you can sign up for any of this dates with this Google Spreadsheet.
Sign up, it will be as cool as today, if not more: things can only improve!

Stefania



JOIN IN SOITA MUMMOLLE STREET ACTIONS

Do you want to give a hand to the Soita Mummolle campaign in a fun and personal way?
No money needed, just a little bit of your time and your personality…
Hitting the streets of Helsinki this summer, Soita Mummolle Street Action is a collective, fun, interactive event outdoors with a good message to spread.

Dates
May: 19th
June: 2nd, 16th, 30th
July: 21st, 28th
August: 4th
Time
17.30 – 19.00 (Including intro, the action itself and the conclusion)
Meeting point
Helsinki Railway Station

A Soita Mummolle Street Action is somethin simple, in only 11 steps:

– Leave from home and remember to bring your digital camera!

– We are meeting in front of Helsinki Railway Station at 17.30

– We are given Soita Mummolle signs

– Either alone or in couples we are reaching a busy spot in the city center

– We show the Soita Mummolle sign to the passer-bys, just standing, smiling, searching for eye contact with the people

– If a passer-by reacts in some way (smiling back, laughing, commenting, asking, keeping the eye contact…) then you are going to ask “Do you think this is a good message?”.
From then you have to try to engage in a short conversation, leading to the point of: “This is a campaign to sensitize against seniors’ loneliness. We don’t want your money, but can we take a picture of you, showing this sign? Then we are going to publish it on our blog as a sign of your personal support to this cause: we are trying to collect as many pictures as possible!”

– Take the photo!

– Leave the sign to the person, telling that s/he can see the picture taken at the blog or Facebook address written on the sign

– Try to collect as many pictures as possible

– All the participants are meeting back at the train station at 19.00 and tell each other how did it go

– The participants have to upload the pictures taken on Soita Mummolle Facebook page as soon as possible, giving as title place and date (e.g. Kamppi, 2.6.2010). Join the group and you will be enabled to upload your pics!
The address of the Facebook page is facebook.com/SoitaMummolle

To sign up for a suitable date, please use this form: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEN3enpRSWQ1QWR1anpmbi03TklBX2c6MQ

If you want to take part in one of these actions, but none of these time suits you, write to soita.mummolle@gmail.com and we can arrange something together! 🙂