Holmes Custom Teams Up with No More Homeless Pets

Here at Holmes Custom, we are all about our pets. If you’re like we are, you know that nothing is better than coming home to a warm greeting from your favorite furry friend. Many of us have dogs or cats at home, so we have compassion for the thousands of animals that are still waiting to be adopted. Our Holmies recently rolled up their sleeves and went to work helping local pets find new homes.

On February 16th we teamed up with First Coast No More Homeless Pets, a Jacksonville organization that works tirelessly to get animals off the streets and out of shelters.

If you aren’t familiar with First Coast No More Homeless Pets, they are a non-profit organization whose mission is to end euthanizing of shelter animals. While their goal is specific, this issue is prevalent. According to the ASPCA in the United States alone, 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year, with that approximately 1.5 million of these pets end up economically euthanized.1

So, what does FCNMHP do to put a stop to this? Their primary function is veterinary services. They offer high quality/low-cost vet services so everyone can afford to adopt and maintain their pet’s health. They also use these services for stray animals. As part of their feral freedom program, they implemented a trap-neuter-return strategy. With this program, they capture, sterilize, and release cats back into their native territory. Stopping the overpopulation in and out of shelters will hopefully end the cycle that stray animals undergo.

Another fantastic element of this organization includes its hosted events. The most important event they host is their Mega Pet Adoption. This gathering includes shelters from all over the state, who bring their adoptable pets with the goal of finding them a forever home. Some of these adoption events have resulted in every pet going to a new home! With adoption events occurring a few times a year and their veterinary efforts in motion, FCNMHP has saved approximately 30,000 cats alone.

After hearing about First Coast No More Homeless Pets’ mission we couldn’t wait to get involved. On a warm Saturday morning in February, some of our most devoted Holmies headed to their headquarters. With the next Mega Pet Adoption soon approaching, several Holmies tended to essential tasks around the FCNMHP facilities. A few team members started working on laundry. They needed clean towels and blankets for the animals after their surgeries.

Other team members worked outside, mowing the lawn, raking the leaves and removing pet waste. That’s what it takes to care for so many animals! Cleaning out pet crates proved to be the most intensive task.

Not only did Holmies clean and sanitize the crates, but they also power washed them, dried them and cleared away leaves and debris. This involved FIVE pallets full of crates!

While helping FCNMHP turned out to be quite the workout, we couldn’t have asked for a more rewarding experience. The knowledge that we were helping animals find new homes made the hard work well worth the effort!

Holmes Custom strives to stay involved in the Jacksonville community, offering free assistance to businesses and non-profit organizations such as No More Homeless Pets.

Even though we had a fantastic opportunity to help this inspiring organization, they could always use more help. While our holmies hope to be back soon, in the meantime you should get your friends and family together to volunteer! From their hospital, pet food bank, and adoption events there’s a place for everyone to lend a hand. By visiting their  Volunteer Sign-Up page, you will be one step closer to helping a shelter animal find its forever family. Until next time you can keep up with us and our work in the community by following Holmes Custom on social media and using the hashtag #HolmesCares.

 

References:

  1. https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics

The #Holmies’ Holiday Party

Company culture is very important to us here at Holmes Stamp & Sign. At the end of every year, right around the holidays, we all get together to celebrate the year. Our Holiday parties are always a blast! It’s a time when we can all forget about work for a little while and have some well-deserved fun.

This year, we celebrated in style at local brewery here in Jacksonville called Intuition. Our dinner was catered by a local restaurant, Black Sheep, and it was delicious! Surrounded by friends and family, we ate, drank and laughed. We played corn hole, ping pong and video games. We even exchanged presents.

To make things interesting, we played a game called White Elephant while exchanging our gifts. It starts with a bunch of wrapped, unlabeled gifts and a hat full of everyone’s names. As names are drawn from the hat, those who are chosen select their gift. The best part is – your gifts can be stolen from those selected after you, so you never know what you’ll end up with. Everyone walked away with something great – from hand-mixers with hidden prizes, to bottles of liquor.

At the end of the night, it wasn’t about the gifts we’d received or the drinks we’d drank or even the food we’d eaten (which is shocking coming from the #Holmies). At the end of the night, it was about the laughs we’d shared, not just during that evening, but throughout the whole year.

Being a part of the Holmes’ culture is more than just working a 9 to 5 and earning a paycheck – it’s about something much bigger. It’s about knowing you can go to work and enjoy your day because you know you matter to those you’re surrounded by. 2016 was another successful year here at Holmes Stamp & Sign and we can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for us.

The Elves on the Shelf Serve Lunch

elves-on-a-shelf-smallerWhen motivating your employees to reach a goal, no matter what that goal may be, it’s hard to beat the free food incentive. But our CEO and CFO managed to do just that. How? Well, not only was there free food on the table, but they also agreed to serve us lunch… dressed as ELVES!

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That’s right – as if a catered lunch from Taco Lu wasn’t enough, we also got to enjoy Bryan Croft and Steve Fernandez, who we know as “Fern”, dressed up in Buddy the Elf costumes.

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During our final month of the year, we have all kinds of incentives to reach a certain number in revenue. These incentives include ice cream sundae parties, pizza parties, catered lunches (yes – we like food here), scratch off lottery tickets, bowling parties, tickets to local sporting events and more. There’s no better way to get everyone here at Holmes Stamp & Sign all pumped for, what we called this year, “The Holmes Stretch.”

elf-on-a-shelf-8Giggles were heard throughout the office a few minutes before noon last Thursday. As Bryan and Fern emerged in their full Elf attire, photos were snapped and jokes were thrown around. Large to-go containers were uncovered and the smell of tacos traveled through the building. We all got in line and one-by-one they served us tacos, rice, beans, salsa, queso and tortilla chips. Laughter, satisfaction, but most of all accomplishment filled the room as we all indulged in our catered lunch.

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As lunch came to an end, we all gathered around the Christmas tree set up in our Marketing suite. Bryan and Fern not-so-excitedly posed for pictures as they knew they would soon be posted all over the Internet!  After a few group photos, some normal and some silly, we headed back to our work stations.

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Part of what makes Holmes Stamp & Sign so special is our company’s culture. Success and customer satisfaction is certainly very important to us, but our leaders always emphasize the importance of enjoying our work. Here at Holmes, we’re more than co-workers – we’re more like a family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours! From your friends at Holmes Stamp & Sign.

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#Holmies Take Over the #MannequinChallenge

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In the digital age, a new trend is always being born. We all remember the Ice Bucket Challenge and even the planking phenomenon. Many of us shook our heads in disbelief as we watched the first videos. But over time, the videos went viral and soon we found ourselves dumping a bucket of ice cold water over our heads and willingly lying face down on the dirty ground. Well if you haven’t heard, there’s a new trend in town (or in the Internet world) and it’s called the Mannequin Challenge.

Started by a group of students at Jacksonville’s Ed White High School, just a few miles away from Holmes Stamp & Sign, the Mannequin Challenge involves a large group of people pretending to be frozen in all kinds of positions. The top video on YouTube has received over seven million views. People from all over the world have participated in the challenge including Michelle Obama, the Clinton campaign, Beyonce and a number of famous athletes.

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Since we love to have fun here at Holmes Stamp and Sign, we decided to give the Mannequin Challenge a try… and it was a BLAST! Watch the #Holmies take on the challenge here:

The Mannequin Challenge may look easy, but it’s actually not as simple as it seems (especially if you have some rambunctious participants J). What looks like a group of just holding perfectly still, actually takes a little preparation. If you’ve been thinking about joining the world in this trend, follow these steps to execute the Mannequin Challenge!

  1. Select a leader: It’s always easier to organize a large group of people when there’s someone in charge.
  2. Find a large (the more the better) group of participants and find out when they can do the challenge.
  3. Set a time and date, then make sure it’s effectively communicated to the rest of the group.
  4. Establish a location and also communicate this to the group.
  5. Choose a videographer (maybe the group’s leader)! Stabilizers are a great filming tool if you have one available. If not, just try to keep a steady arm while filming.
  6. Once everyone’s at the location, have the leader instruct them to hold their favorite position (It can be normal, funny or odd – but remember, unique poses will separate your video from others!)
  7. RECORD! Have your videographer walk through the crowd, recording everyone’s “frozen” position and paying attention to those that stand apart. Make sure everyone holds as still as possible.
  8. Once you’re done, celebrate your awesomeness!
  9. Optional: Lay the audio track “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd behind the video before posting.
  10. Have the leader post the video to social media, then have the rest of the group share the video to ALL of their platforms so you can get the most views as possible.

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Congratulations! You’ve successfully executed the Mannequin Challenge. Now sit back, relax and hope your video goes viral. If not, you’ll have a fun, humorous video to watch for years to come! Above all, the Mannequin Challenge is about having FUN, so make sure to do that.

 

 

The Haiti180 Perspective

On a Monday morning, Holmes Stamp & Sign CEO Bryan Croft woke up earlier than most Mondays and prepared for a full day of travel. A 12-hour-journey would take him and his friends, including Holmes’ IT Manager Daniel Kellogg, to what would’ve felt like a different world for most. With nine suitcases full of donations they headed to Haiti on a mission’s trip. Two plane rides later, they arrived in Port au Prince, what he described as the “true poverty” of Haiti. Their day of travel wasn’t close to over yet as they climbed into a canter truck and headed west past the city, coast line and mountains.

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After a five hour road trip, they arrived at their destination: Kay Mari, an orphanage that houses 35 children between the ages of nine months and thirteen-years-old. These children, as Bryan put it, are the ones who’ve “hit the jackpot” in comparison to the other locals because they consistently have food and shelter. The orphanage and a church sit on a gated piece of land. Katie, the backbone of the orphanage and an Ohio-native that traveled there as a missionary seven years ago and never returned, and seven locals all care for the children.

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At the heart of this orphanage is an organization called Haiti180. Founder Sean Forrest first travelled to Haiti in 2002 and experienced the lack of love and compassion each child received in the orphanage system due to a need for more caretakers. From there, he and his group built and now operate Kay Mari, a state-of-the-art school, an elderly home and are working to build a medical facility.

The children ran straight to them when they arrived at the orphanage. Now his fifth trip to Kay Mari, Bryan said he’s built a relationship with some of the kids and they recognize him, just waiting for him to bring out the tootsie rolls.

The days to follow would be full of digging a large hole for the orphanage’s new well, walking the children to their school miles away and dividing donated items brought from home and spreading them throughout the surrounding village. They’d eat chicken boiled in a pot of hot water, level the ground of the orphans’ home and kick soccer balls around with the kids. They’d tend to a 38-year-old man who lives miles away from the orphanage named John Simone.haiti14

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Five years ago, John was in a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed. With no family to take care of him, he lays helplessly in a small, clay hut day in and day out, unable to move and care for himself. When Bryan and his friends arrived, Katie expressed her great concerns for the man and they all quickly agreed to help however they could. So with the little supplies they had, they walked to the man’s home daily to care for his brutal bed sores and give him a reason to smile.

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“We went there four days in a row and the first day it was like we made eye contact with him but that’s it. But by the last day, and he could hardly move,” said Bryan, “But he was trying to grab our hands and say ‘Thank you!’”

Bryan said he returned to Jacksonville, FL. with one word resonating in his mind: perspective.

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Bryan Croft and Kelly (Weedon) Noda met at Christ the King Catholic grade school in First grade, have remained friends over the years and were a part of the group of missionaries that went on this trip, pretty fun for a 30+ year friendship to end up in Haiti together, and you never know what you can and will accomplish with the people you meet in first grade!

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Haiti180 brings missionaries  to Kay Mari every year to help build and support a self-sustaining environment so the children can grow to one day be the leaders Haiti needs. Whether you form your own group or join an existing one, the opportunity to change your perspective and help someone much less fortunate is always there. You can also donate toward their current goal of $220,000 which will help them complete the medical facility.

Visit www.Haiti180.com to learn more about the people of Kay Mari, to apply to be a missionary or to donate to the cause.

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Holmes Stamp & Sign’s Blood Drive

Throughout the year, we make time to distract from our usual work and give back to those in need. When you give to someone else, not only are you impacting another’s life – but you’re also impacting your own. Helping someone else ignites a joy within us that’s undeniable. This time around, Holmes Stamp & Sign hosted a blood drive with the help of OneBlood.

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On Friday, November 11th the big red OneBlood bus pulled into our parking lot bright and early. Our Human Resources Manager, Elena Rend, directed the large vehicle as it struggled to find space in our parking lot.  At 8:30 a.m., donations began!

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Thirteen of our employees squeezed tight on red and blue, foam rubber balls as the OneBlood nurses drew their blood. All donors received a OneBlood fleece blanket as well as a wellness checkup including blood pressure, temperature, iron count, pulse and cholesterol screenings.

Holmes Stamp & Sign makes it a priority to host a blood drive multiple times a year. In fact, this was our third blood drive in 2016 alone! There’s plenty of other organizations also contributing to this great cause like various Walgreens locations and movie theatres offering incentives like free movie tickets.

If you’re interested in donating, OneBlood has donation centers located from the most southern tip of Florida all the way up into Georgia. Or you can park the big red bus in your organization’s parking lot for a few hours and get your employees involved, too!

Visit www.OneBlood.org to find out more about donating and/or hosting a blood drive.

While you’re there, visit the “I am OneBlood” tab to learn about all the lives this small gesture is impacting!

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The Rethreaded Story

It’s always exciting to receive emails and be tagged in social media posts by  happy customers who love their products. Our custom stamps and other branding tools help small and growing businesses across the country represent their brands. Our passion helps them establish their passion – and it doesn’t get much better than that.

We wanted to share the story of one of those businesses because not only are they located in Jacksonville just like us, but their passion is making a difference in the lives of those who, to put it very lightly, haven’t had it easy.

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Founded by Kristin Keen, “Rethreaded started with a simple idea, and a strong passion,” reads their website. That passion was to positively impact victims of the sex trade industry by providing them with dignifying work and “allowing them to be who they were created to be.”

According to Rethreaded’s website, Human Trafficking is a $32 billion a year industry and between 75% – 95% of prostituted women were sexually abused as children. 90% of women within the sex slave industry want to escape, but lack access to jobs and resources. Rethreaded’s mission was and still is to change that.

In November of 2012, Rethreaded hired its first full-time employee. They empowered victims by giving them opportunities and allowing them to express their creativity through the women’s accessories they made. They purchased a custom stamp from Holmes Stamp and Sign that they used to brand themselves when they first began and still orders things like name tags, doing business with us regularly.

Over the past four years, Rethreaded has impacted the lives of 24 survivors in Jacksonville, provided over 17,000 hours of work to local survivors and helped to sustain the freedom of over 2,200 women internationally.

To support this magnificent cause, you can shop their products. They create and sell beautiful and unique accessories like scarves, bags, jewelry as well as home goods like coasters and plant hangers. Rethreaded even has pet toys! You also can contribute by hosting an event, volunteering your time and/or donating.

Visit their website at www.Rethreaded.com to learn more about their story and support their mission!

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The Call Of Coffee

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Photo courtesy of Huffington Post

If you believe that everything gets better with coffee, you may not be able to buy happiness but you can buy an iced frappuccino that comes pretty close, and that a yawn is nothing more than a scream for something caffeinated – you might be addicted to the rise and grind mantra of coffee lovers all over the world. But don’t worry you’re not alone! According to a 2014 article by Huffington Post, it is estimated that nearly 83% of adults in America drink some form of coffee. Morning coffee runs, full cups, mugs, tumblers, and thermoses have become one of the few things that unites us as human being regardless of race, religion, or politics. Yes, coffee makes the world go round. Go ahead and try to think of an office that lacks a coffee maker, we’ll wait.

Anything? We didn’t think so. In all honesty, the world’s addiction to coffee is nothing new. The earliest origin story of coffee dates back to the 4th-6th century in Ethiopia, according to the National Coffee Association USA, it was a goat herder first discovered the effects of coffee “it is said that Kaldi discovered coffee after noticing that his goats, upon eating berries from a certain tree, became so energetic that they did not want to sleep at night. Kaldi reported his findings to the abbot of the local monastery who made a drink with the berries and discovered that it kept him alert for the long hours of evening prayer. The abbot shared his discovery with the other monks at the monastery, and slowly knowledge of the energizing berries began to spread. As word moved east and coffee reached the Arabian peninsula, it began a journey which would spread its reputation across the globe.” From humble beginnings, coffee spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and eventually to Europe and beyond. It has been estimated that by the mid 1600’s there were over 300 coffee houses in London alone. Brands like Starbucks, Maxwell House, and Keurig have made countless billions on our dependency on coffee. Today it would be a challenge to find somewhere coffee isn’t served.

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Photo courtesy of quotesgram.com

Our own offices at Holmes Stamp & Sign are no different. At least one coffee cup can be found on almost every desk. Our stamps may run on ink but all of us certainly run on coffee. With that being said we’ve created a whole host of coffee mug designs perfect for any individual style. All of our mugs have been painstakingly created by our design team and printed by our dedicated employees. Dishwasher and microwave safe, our mugs stand the test of time, even after cup after cup after cup of piping hot coffee.

Are you like us? Does your day just not feel right unless you’ve got a healthy amount of caffeine coursing through your veins? Be sure to check out all of our coffee cup designs and styles! Have a request for a special design? We want to hear about it! Sound off in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to make it happen!

An Early Holiday Gift From Our Standout CEO

It’s beginning to look a lot like the holiday season here at Holmes Stamp & Sign! Even if it may not look like it outside, we’re beginning to feel the effects of Jack Frost and Old Man Winter here in North Florida despite the fact that some of our northern neighbors are already finding themselves, not to mention their vehicles, fully submerged in icy snow. And while we may not be able to see any snow on the ground, there are other ways for us to tell just what time of the year it is. Our production floor is jam packed with brand new products being made, our shipping offices are overflowing with packages to be sent out, and there is more than just one new face wandering our halls helping us out during our annual holiday rush!

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Our very own CEO Mr. Bryan Croft himself alongside his daughter Avery.

This year our very own CEO Bryan Croft decided to do something extra special for all of his employees. On the morning of the start of our busiest month of the year, he decided to wake up early, grab his daughter, pack up the car, and beat everyone else to work. As we all began to trickle in through the doors bundled up in our coats and scarves, we immediately noticed something was different in our warehouses. Curious, we followed the sounds and smells coming from the break room and discovered the both Bryan and his daughter, serving up a massive breakfast spread intended for everyone in the company to enjoy! Wasting no time, we dug in and got to work for the day! When all was said and done, our team of 68 employees had devoured 156 fresh pancakes, 5 gallons of orange juice, 4 lbs. of bacon, 3 lbs. of sausage, two boxes of Dunkin Donuts coffee, and more maple syrup than we knew what to do with! Was this a bit unexpected? Absolutely. Was this an unpleasant experience? Never! The super special breakfast gift from our caring and considerate CEO was just the thing we needed to get us in the holiday spirit!

We couldn’t have been any more surprised or thankful when we walked in and saw all of the food ready and waiting for us! With the holiday season comes, longer hours, tighter deadlines, and lots of coffee runs! That’s why mornings such as these are just one of the many examples that makes working at Holmes Stamp & Sign so great! We’re proud to consider ourselves one big happy stamping family – especially during this time of the year where things can get particularly hectic!

Looking to get the best deals going into the holiday season? Our high quality products make great gifts for yourself or your loved ones. Sign up for our exclusive mailing list offers and skip the lines, and save!

Worried about getting your items in time for the holidays? Don’t be! We work extra hard to get all of your items shipped within one business day! Place your order today and enjoy spending more time with your family and friends than out at the mall!

The 2015 Holiday Season Is On At Holmes Stamp!

Photo courtesy of www.lds.org
Photo courtesy of www.lds.org

The Holiday season has officially kicked off here at Holmes Stamp & Sign! From our company wide decorations to our new product designs, there’s no holding back our holiday spirit this year or ever! And even though there’s a lack of snow on the ground here in North Florida, that hasn’t stopped us from feeling the icy fingertips of Mr. Jack Frost himself (sure it was only a few days, but it counts right?). While it’s true we haven’t felt as much fall weather as we have in years past, we’re hopeful that things will continue to cool down for the winter Holidays!

So just how are we kicking things off this year? If you’re a part of our mailing list, you’ve got a pretty good idea! This year we’re going above and beyond to bring our customers the best possible steals and deals that we can manage! Miss out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We’ve got plenty of more specials and one of a kind holiday stamps coming your way!

So what can we offer you to help you breeze through your holiday to-do list? Plenty!

1. Address Stamps

Nothing says the Holidays are approaching quite like the mass amount of Holiday Greeting cards that cycle through the mail every year. For those with families, this is a great time to update friends and family that you may not get a chance to talk to much on all of the things that have gone on this past year. Whether you choose to send out a full length letter or just a standard Season’s Greetings card, our famous address stamps can help you save time where it counts – and when it comes to the holidays, EVERY minute counts when you’re trying to get stuff done! Self inking address stamps are a super fast and trendy way to get your mail ready to go in half the time! Simply make your impression and move on to the next envelope. Capable of countless impressions, these little guys make excellent time savers for you or stocking stuffers for others!

2. Gift Labels

Ready to tackle yet another time consuming aspect of the holiday season? How many times have you been wrapping presents only to end up fighting with cheap gift labels that rip, tear, and even peel right off of your packages? Never again! No more struggling to apply gift labels, and no more running to the store at the last minute to buy more because you ran out! Save your time and money by making your own! Now we know this may sound more time consuming than going to the store, but we promise it’s not! Just purchase some cheap labels from your local office store and stamp your gift tags with one of our gift tag stamps! Or you can choose to get really creative by cutting up bits of scrapbook paper and using ribbon, tape, or glue, to attach it to your gift bags or packages.

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Photo courtesy of bardstar.tumblr.com

3. Santa Signature’s

Whether you have kids or know someone who does, our Santa Signature stamps are the perfect tool to use this holiday season. Nothing encourages kids to be on their best behavior quite like a personalized letter from Santa! Just type the letter up yourself and then use one of our Santa Signature stamps to give it an authentic touch!

Here at Holmes Stamp & Sign, we’ve worked especially hard this year making sure that you won’t have to! It is our Holiday wish to you, that you are able to sit back and relax this winter and enjoy the season!