One of the things many of us here at AdlandPro, really enjoy doing is celebrating. Whether it is a birthday, a holiday or an individual accomplishment, we just LOVE to celebrate. One of my favorite forums for celebrating is hosted by a woman I'm sure many of you know, Mary Hofstetter.

The forum is called Celebrate Our Different Cultures, and I was curious about what gave her the idea, so I asked, and here is what she answered:

"In December, 2006 I began a forum to glean from AdlandPro members, some ideas of how we could make our community better. It was called Troubleshooting Situations in AdlandPro where we identified problems and looked for solutions.

One such suggestion was that we tend to celebrate American holidays and ignore our international friends and their holiday celebrations. We acknowledged that this was so and it would be good to have such celebrations. When no one took up the idea, I began at the end of January with "Celebrate Our Different Cultures" forum.

I began to wonder why people would be interested in posting there and what benefits they could gain for their business. So another forum thread was born titled Think Outside the Box. It became the best discussion forum I ever handled here at AdlandPro. The obvious is that we learn about cultures around the world and build understanding of one another. Then we stepped outside the box and talked about who would want to see the pages about these holidays and celebrations and how would they enrich our lives and build our business.

>From this thread, people could see that it would be important for them to not only learn but they could benefit from posting in the forum.

Apparently others see value in the content as they promote the forum for me. I have had people promote threads, but these people are promoting the whole forum.

Wayne Ellis has "Celebrations of our different Cultures" on his Squidoo lens. He is using it as an illustration of what AdlandPro forums are like, I guess to show how we are international and promote each other in our business ventures. He doesn't visit and post, so he is not promoting his business by sending people over to visit but rather promoting the forum, an advertising tool for his AdlandPro affiliate program. Jill Bachman has mentioned the forum on her Community Spirit forum also, usually every other time, and Terry Gorley usually mentions in her weekly notice of happenings in AdlandPro as well."

The benefits of the forum have gone far beyond what was originally planned. Here are some of the things people have told Mary about her forum.

It brought back memories", "It was educational",*A good place to advertise in their signature line", "They wanted to share a special holiday in their country", * Even though their homeland, they were unfamiliar with a specific holiday", *Fun event when we celebrate some of the silly special days", *People enjoyed learning the history of the holiday", *Their children were reading the forum", *Pagan roots of many holidays were a surprise", and *People were proud to have their homeland holidays acknowledged".

In closing, Mary said, "For me the joy has come in the research. There is usually so much information that I have a hard time condensing the material. It is a joy when visitors come and add some visuals to add to the forum. If no one visited, I still would enjoy and continue to add to the forum as the threads add value to my life. As a senior citizen it is good to do mind exercises to stay alert and this is what happens with each page I add.

Good friends of AdlandPro have worked with me to develop the pages. Their friendship widened my world. Each holiday page includes locations, activities, history, traditions and much more. Visitors can imagine that they have visited another country and enjoyed a special holiday without leaving their homes.

The greatest thing about the forum is that anyone can come visit and add their comments any day, not just on that specific date. AdlandPro members visit but it is obvious that we get visitors from outside AdlandPro.

Come visit today and enjoy the good and happy times in our world. Everyone loves a holiday....time away from work and time to follow traditions that have been passed down through the generations."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Mary. You can visit the forum Here.



Written By: JUDY WOODSON

************************************************** ********************************

THE POETRY CORNER

In this issue of the Newsletter we are featuring another one of AdlandPro's great poets, Dr. Robert Talmadge . Robert has written quite a few wonderful poems that I have read, and he sent me a special one to put into our Newsletter.


I had an opportunity to speak with Robert about his writing, and here is what he said to me in the Interview.

Q. When did you first start writing poetry, and what made you start writing?

A. I started to write poetry when I was in the Army. It originally started out as therapy for me, but I was so inspired I just kept going on with my writing.

Q. Where do you get your motivation, or inspiration, from to write the poems that you do?
A. I don't know really! I just get an inspiration about something and I can't rest until I commit it to paper.

Thanks very much Robert for the Interview. A man of few words, but many when he writes his poetry. And speaking of poetry, here is Robert's poem! Enjoy.

A seed lay in the ground

Patiently waiting to sprout
Finally the day came
But a man put over it a concrete slab.
The seed burst forth
When it touched the hard concrete
It paused its growing and asked its maker
Where am I going?
God looked down
and pitied the little plant
An extra burst of hope He sent
Then the rock split and up it went.
The man looked at the plant
and wondered how it could be
There sprouted a flower through the concrete
The most beautiful for all to see.
When we are up against a wall
And answers are hard to find
Remember this tender little flower
Succeeding Against all odds with incredible power.

By Robert Talmadge

Written By: MARILYN L. ALI-MARTIN

WINNERS OF THE POTW AWARD

Hello Everyone!

Before updating you on last month's POTW winners I would like to thank my forum partner Pauline Raina for all the help she has been in promoting the Person of the Week forum and poll. I would also like to thank the various individuals in the community who have also helped to promote this project.

Note: We recently came out with the Voter of the Week feature which has caught on and we are expecting an increase in voters.

Now let's see who won POTW award in March:

Andrew Anderson POTW Forum & Profile

Patricia B POTW Forum & Profile

Sharon Lee POTW Forum & Profile

Natalya Restivo POTW Profile & Profile

Geketa Holman POTW Forum & Profile

And the winners of the Voters of the Week for the month of March were:

Donald Rich and Pauline Raina
Phil Black and Linda Collmar
Alcoya Shadd and Dr. John Crawford
Ms Bj Burgess and Robert Ketcham
Terry Gorley and Steve ONeal

Thank you Everyone for taking the time to Vote and for your support of the Person of the Week program.

Blessings to all of you from the POTW partners, John Sanchez and Pauline Raina