While creating an ad for a local soccer tournaments program, I was having trouble finding a design I liked. Trying to decide whether to settle on this one particular layout I decided to seek advice from a graphic designer friend of mine. This friend works in the graphic design department at Velcro and is very good at what he does. I greatly respect his judgment and value his opinions when it comes to design work. He looked over it and we decided to make some changes, but in the course of that he questioned the benefit I had used as the tagline, "Quality Awards Build Brighter Futures." The conversation we had follows: Mike : I like where you are trying to go with the tag line but I'm not sure quality is the right word... I know why you used it... me : ummmm.... i don't know what to replace it with Mike : but does the quality of the award really play into the accomplishment I guess it does if I think about it me : quality awards that reward the accomplishmen...

There are two kinds of recognition. The effective kind and the ineffective kind. The ineffective kind often finds its way to the trashcan or the back of a shelf fairly quickly. These types of recognition products are often referred to as dust collectors and in the most severe cases trash. Effective recognition inspires and invigorates the receiver to continue to strive to achieve. These types of recognition awards and trophies are often times cherished for a lifetime and the stories of the victory or success is often times repeated again and again. Jimmy Rollins MVP trophy fits this category. I think that Aaron Rowand will be talking about his gold glove for some time. We shouldn't forget that for kids, effective recognition goes great distances towards building brighter futures and is imperative for some youth to keep them striving to try their hardest and keep wanting to come back year in and year out. This is omething that dust collectors can't do and a great reason...

Quakertown Alive is hosting it's 9th annual arts alive festival on Saturday, May 17th. This event is a good time to be had by all and includes a nu mber of things to do that celebrates the arts. With close to 100 artists and crafters and live performances going on all day, downtown Quakertown comes alive on this Saturday to help spread the arts to all. Included in the activities are musical performances, horse drawn carriage rides, magicians and much more. Check out Quakertown Alives Arts Alive page for more information. Hope to see you there! Q uakertown Alive! is a volunteer-driven, non-profit community development organization in Quakertown, Pennsylvania based on the principles of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its Four-Point Main Street Approach . See "About QA!" at left for additional information.