We are 1,000 Strong!
You did it! I'm totally blown away. We set the ceiling for success really high this week and you smashed right through it. This is nothing short of stunning.
Member 1,000
Our 1000th Member is Laura Nottingham from Omaha, Nebraska. She is a sociology professor from Omaha, Nebraska who is active in Mode Shift Omaha and Omaha Bikes. It was really exciting to chat with her and thank her for putting us over the top.
Our Members were the Difference
We could not have reached this lofty goal without the support of our members. We asked them to help us amplify our message and -- wow -- did they ever. While we streamed their posts, I could not keep up with it. We have more people to thank than we will possibly be able to. Just know that the membership of this movement is what is growing it. We are 1,000 Strong together.
A Growing Movement
On our member drive page, we chose a headline photo from a speech I gave and put my daughter Chloe in the most prominent spot. We chose the photo because of the crowd size, but here's what the scene was shortly before that photo was taken.
In many ways it's a metaphor for how far we've come. One solitary voice growing into a handful of enthusiastic people offering encouragement and support. That small group then growing into a Founder's Circle of supporters that now have reached 1,000 Strong. You should all be proud.
Thank You
There are so many people to thank, but we need to extend a special thank you to several people who helped make this drive possible:
- Matthias Leyrer - This superhero created all of our member testimonial graphics and enabled hundreds of people to share them on social media. Thank you, Matthias.
- Beth Gehred, Jim Roberts, Marielle Brown, Josh Fairchild, Terry Mitchell, Jonathan Hay, Maurice Carter, Joe Minicozzi, Kevin Shepherd, Kristin Green, Johnny Sanphillippo, Pat Trahan, Brittany McLaughlin, Michael Smith - These folks kindly spoke about Strong Towns and allowed us to share their words and photos.
This is an important milestone for the Strong Towns movement. We should all feel like we've accomplished something. We have; it's a big deal. Yet, in the context of what we are trying to accomplish and where we are trying to take this movement, this is a stop along the way. We're going to enjoy this weekend, but we're going to hit it hard again next week and keep at it until we have a million people who care.
Monday it's back to your regularly scheduled programming. Thank you for all of your support this week! Keep doing what you can to build strong towns.