100 years

Last week. Sunday, January 10 marked the 100 year anniversary of Hallmark.  100 years.  WOW.  The past few months as our PR department has been preparing for this big event and I was getting invoices that the store's budgets needed to be adjusted for all the centennial pins for all store associates...and I was more semi-annoyed than excited for this mark in history.  And after living this week, I'm so embarrassed to say that because WOW...what an amazing milestone for a company to make. 

The weeks events included a birthday party on Monday for all employees.  It was complete with an awesome band, great music, speeches from the chairman of the board, CEO and President, employees acting out the historical timeline of Hallmark and a 100 ft birthday cake!!  Check out this picture.  They had to hold 3 parties for all employees to attend...

(Photo from the Hallmark twitter page)

Aren't those lights awesome??  That's our cafeteria!!

On Tuesday, we got to go over to the Visitors Center and watch a new video that will now be showing there for all visitors to see that showcases not only the great history of the company, but the most crucial part of the company's success which is the Hall Family themselves.  

Thursday, I went to an awesome presentation at the American Heartland Theater (in Crown Center) about Hallmark Hall of Fame.  And what an a amazing presentation it was.  Did you know that Hallmark Hall of Fame has been around since 1961 and there have been 96 presentations so far...and by the end of 2010 there will have been 100.  If I have my facts straight, they have won 19 Emmy awards.  Hallmark Cards was presented an Emmy which was the first ever Emmy to be presented to a sponsor.  We not only got to hear from the President of Hallmark HOF himself in the hour long presentation, but watch clips from some of the older movies, learn about the people involved (from those in KC and those in LA), and best of all watch the best of commercials that have been seen in these presentations over the years.  I love the commercials!!  They have an awesome commercial on the next Hall of Fame for the centennial, so be sure to watch it!!

Friday, they had Hoops & YoYo downstairs to take pictures with employees- which I didn't get to go down and get one with them, which was sad, but fun for other people I'm sure!

Also, every single employee, current and retired, got a great commemorative book to mark this amazing event.  It's huge and a great coffee table book to browse with all of Hallmark's history as well as KC history!!  You will have to come to my house to check it out :)

Overall, just wanted to tell you about the exciting week that we had last week!  It's truly an honor to work for a company with such history that maintains it's family connections and commitements to their employees, consumers, and the community.  This last week was just affirmation about how happy I am to be working here and how lucky I feel! Very motivated now....

Here's some great places to visit to learn more about this momentous event.  They have places for consumers to comment about how they feel about our company and how it's been a part of their lives....

Hallmark 100 year site

Or follow them on Twitter

Or my FAVORITE person/followee (whatever it's called) to follow on Twitter is Edge of Motherhood.  They are HILARIOUS.  If you haven't seen that card line, you need to.

Ok that's all I have to say :)  Hope everyone had a great Monday and cheers to another week!!