Sometimes, it just happens

We headed up north to a new mall. Well, it's been open for more than a year, but it's about as far away from our neck of the woods as you can get in this sprawling metropolis so it's new to us.
We sauntered around the mall then rounded a corner of "the neighborhood" (sections of the mall as they call them), I spied some plain baseball hats. The only reason I noticed them is because I have had three or four custom hats made for myself already. So, they stood out like a beacon in the night to me.

I stopped in, and looked at the hats trying to find just the right one. "J" was setting up another order for a different customer but offered quite a bit of help. Especially when one of the hats made my melon head look even bigger..."um, no that one doesn't look good" "It's too big". I was thankful for his honesty.

After I picked out just the right one, we were setting up the order and he asked what was going to be embroidered. I decided to write it out myself since verbally repeating it might be a bit of a pain.

As I was writing it, he was reading it and asked what it was about.....

Weeeeellll, let me tell you......

I asked if he was an organ donor and although he looked a bit nervous he was able to say he wasn't. Which really is absolutely fine. I made sure my project is NOT about changing minds. It all about awareness. Only he, or you or anyone can change their own mind regarding organ donation. All I am doing is talking about it.

We finished setting up the hat order, picked out the font, size and thread colors. I was taking pictures through the process and I found out he was a documentary filmmaker while in high school. So when it came time for the photo release, he was no problem at all. He has had other sign them too.

It was nice that I didn't have to deal with the details.

We went off to finish our rounds around the HUGE mall and hit a Red Robin for a late lunch.

After lunch I stopped by to pick up the hat. Unfortunately, there was a problem with how the hat was sitting on the equipment when it was getting embroidered. It skewed the text bad enough that I wasn't too happy with it. Since they have a guarantee, they offered to do it again. But they were backed up and asked if I could stop by tomorrow....Um, well I live about an hour away and it wouldn't really be worth the drive. To their credit, they fit my hat in to the order stream between other hats. I got to see the hard work it takes to custom embroider a hat. Lineing the seams up and making sure everything is just right is a tough job. Each one of the employees stepped up and made sure it worked right.

Unfortunately, for some reason the hat still skewed when it was about halfway through the process. Again, they did a few things to try and make the hat turn out right. While it's not perfect, I am happy with the results of my "Lids". I saw first hand the hard time they had. I appreciate their work to make it right.

They bagged up my hat and threw in the first run too. While I didn't ask for it, they offered it and I was appreciative.

So, hopefully, I can give back some more business when soccer and cheer leading start this fall. I would really like to give the cheerleaders custom headbands this fall. Maybe the same for soccer.

"J" did say, that after listening to my own story about organ donation and some of the numbers he was second guessing his decision. He might change his mind when it comes time to get his license renewed. You can see his picure here http://www.flickr.com/photos/oneaday2007