Fostering Community in Baltimore

As long as we’ve called Baltimore home, we’ve felt a strong calling to foster community and create events in our city. We love mixing and mingling with people from all walks of life, and also supporting local businesses. Below details the story of how our company president, Jess Watson, tackled the concept of connecting people together, through a collection of coffee cup sleeves.

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Kindness really does come with a cup of coffee. In 2015, after noticing that her local cafe, Koba Cafe, distributed coffee cup sleeves with advertisements on them, Jess Watson had an idea. “I figured that if I could my hands on a bulk supply of bank coffee cup sleeves, and get others to write positive quotes and messages on them, it would be a fun way to show how we’re all connected, and how a little act of kindness goes a long way.”

Watson then set out on a mission. She ordered 1000 coffee cup sleeves, and received donations of markers from friends and others in the community. “I’m essentially asking you to wish your neighbor a nice day.” And with that, the Have A Nice Day Project was created.

Watson enlisted the help of friends to host events  in local establishments around the city. Since it’s inception, the Have A Nice Day Project has made appearances at Betamore, REV Cycle Studio, Bar Liquorice, Sweet Caroline’s, and The Elephant. The events are social, fostering opportunities to mix and mingle in the name of community.

This year, the project was also completed by the staff members at DOJO4 in Boulder, Colorado, and a kindergarten class at Success Academy Bed-Stuy 1 in Brooklyn, NY.

“This is a project for anyone, no matter how old or young you are,” says Watson. “You have fun coming up with quotes and jokes for the coffee cup sleeves, and then a stranger, a neighbor of yours somewhere in the city, receives a smile when they look down at their cup of coffee.”

The most recent event was on June 14th, 6-8pm at Handlebar Cafe (Douglass Pace). Long term, Watson would like to find ways to make the project accessible to more people and more cafes. To date, over 3000 coffee cup sleeves have been donated to Koba Cafe. With her event on June 14th, she’s including Handlebar Cafe in the pot for receiving coffee cup sleeves.

Sponsors for Have A Nice Day Project include TheWairehouse, UrbanStems, and Volunteering Untapped.

Watson is the owner and creative director of Points North Design Studio in Federal Hill, helps to organize events for the group Baltimore Women in Tech, and is passionate about bringing communities together.

EVENT LINKS
http://haveanicedayproject.com (see all the photos from the last event)
https://www.facebook.com/events/461509534191642