At the beginning of this year, I spent a few months preparing for and making contact with people that I had hoped could join me in building Lightward Bound as an official non-profit corporation in the state of Utah. I received positive feedback–people saw the organization as a good idea and something needed. But one by one, the evidence became clear that people had plenty of their own to keep them occupied. I had to face the reality that, for now, Lightward Bound doesn’t have the kind of support needed to draw people in to give of their time and energy. This meant that the organization must remain a sole proprietorship for now, doing business as Lightward Bound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in April, I turned my attention to working on what I can do myself to carry out the mission of LWB in some small way. I decided in that month to participate as a vendor with a booth at the 2024 Tooele County Fair in August. It took a lot of time and some money to get everything ready for the event. I paid others in our community to create a few items to sell that would carry messages of light. Though I didn’t sell a lot at the event, I did feel that the booth was moderately successful in other ways. I was able to pass out papers with various messages relating to light. The name of the organization was in front of many people and I had some good interactions with a few of them. I also heard some positive feedback that helped keep me motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, in the first week of October, I set up a vendor table at the Tooele Marketplace with the same merchandise I had at the fair. That was another positive experience, although again there weren’t a lot of sales. I was able to gather some data through merchandise surveys to help me understand why people weren’t buying the merchandise. Again, I passed out papers with messages of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later in October, Lightward Bound had a vendor booth at the Fall Festival put on by 180 Ministries in Erda. I felt that the event was a good venue for the message of light and again it was a positive experience. But sales weren’t any better than at previous events. I did gather some more data from the merchandise surveys, which have revealed valuable information to guide me. I also passed out more papers on light. One particularly significant thing I gained at this event was information about another event that a lady running another vendor booth gave me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That led me to the final event of 2024 where LWB set up a vendor booth: The “It’s a Wonderful Life Festival,” which was put on by Life’s Worth Living Foundation in December. For me, this was my favorite event that LWB was part of. After offering merchandise at the previous three events and analyzing the merchandise survey results, I decided to go a different direction for this event. I focused on activities people could do at the booth, rather than selling merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The annual event is a Christmas-themed festival. So I got permission to make copies of various coloring pages that had Christmas artwork for children to color at the booth. That was the most popular activity. I had a number of children stay and color one of the pages. On the backs of the pages was a message to children to be kind to others and also to parents to help their children learn that lesson, which they took with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other activities included t-shirt coloring using stencils with various positive images and messages and a “light search” where participants searched for messages within the building to find words to put on their paper to complete another message of light. Overall, I feel the booth was successful and enjoyable and hopefully helped spread the message of light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For 2025 I hope to continue participating in events like these and continue to improve on my approach. I hope to delve into other areas, as well, to help bring more light into Tooele County. Let’s keep moving toward the light!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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