{"id":9856,"date":"2016-03-29T21:19:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T01:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/?p=9856"},"modified":"2016-03-29T21:20:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T01:20:07","slug":"rochester-post-feature-3-29-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/rochester-post-feature-3-29-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester Post Feature 3.29.16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Catching Fireflies to spread smiles on April Fools\u2019 Day<\/h4>\n

Mary Beth Almond<\/p>\n

\"silly<\/p>\n

ROCHESTER \u2014 While many across the country play practical jokes on friends and loved ones for April Fools\u2019 Day, a local store will be focusing on spreading a little cheer.
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\nApril McCrumb \u2014 who owns and operates Catching Fireflies, a gift shop with locations in Rochester, Berkley and Ann Arbor \u2014 said she was inspired to spread a little silliness this April after encountering a curious group of stones while weeding the courtyard of her Ann Arbor Catching Fireflies location last summer.
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\n\u201cAll of a sudden, I pulled some weeds out and I saw a little family of stones with little eyes on them looking up at me, which I found very amusing,\u201d McCrumb said. \u201cIt was a pleasant surprise to find them while I was doing an unfortunate task.\u201d
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\nShe never found the culprit behind the silly stones, which then inspired her to paint simple eyeballs on some stones and spread them across South Haven during a vacation last summer.
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\n\u201cWe went back the next day and all the stones were gone, and then I started thinking more about it \u2026 and thought it would be a cool way to raise money for a great organization and encourage people to have a little more fun in their daily drudgeries of life,\u201d McCrumb said.
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\nMcCrumb plans to scatter more stones in Rochester, and the other two downtown areas of each of her store locations, on April Fools\u2019 Day.
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\n\u201cWe purchased over 70 nice, round, smooth stones and we put eyes on them \u2026 and our team is going to go out and distribute them on the morning of April Fools\u2019 Day, just because it is sort of a fun day to launch the project,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether it be on a planter downtown or on the steps of the library, we are going to put them where people will find them to create a whimsical encounter.\u201d
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\nOn the back of each silly stone is a website address, MakingDay sBrighter.com, which McCrumb hopes will encourage some of the recipients who ended up spotting the stones to share their stories. The website, McCrumb explained, tells the story about the project, encourages sharing of images or stories on social media, and offers the ability to purchase additional silly stones.
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\n\u201cThe idea is, if you find that silly stone that makes you smile, either keep it or pass it on someplace else in your journey. Maybe leave it with a tip at the place you go for lunch, or sneak it into somebody\u2019s cubicle. We just want to encourage a bit of playfulness,\u201d McCrumb said.
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\nAdditional silly stones will also be offered at all Catching Fireflies locations for $2, with all profits being donated to the Detroit-area nonprofit Life Builders. McCrumb said Life Builders is a well-established group of caring people who have a heart for the Regent Park community located in northeast Detroit. McCrumb said she also has personal ties to the neighborhood, which is where her adopted daughter\u2019s family lives.
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\nThe mission of Life Builders, according to Executive Director Larry Johnson, is to restore dignity and provide hope to the residents of Regent Park in Detroit by empowering youth with life skills that will lead to good decisions and a bright future; reclaiming an entire neighborhood from the effects of disinvestment by providing safe, high-quality, affordable housing; and building a community of shared values, trust and hope for the future.
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\n\u201cIt was a great surprise to us to receive the note from April that she had chosen our organization. We are well-aware that there has been increasing interest in the work that we are doing on Detroit\u2019s northeast side, and to find that she has a family member that actually lived here, which sparked her interest in our work, was amazing. We are certainly grateful every time that somebody shares our work, so we are thankful, to say the least,\u201d said Johnson.
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\nCatching Fireflies is located in downtown Rochester at 203 E. University Drive. The store also has locations in Berkley and Ann Arbor. For more information about Catching Fireflies, visit\u00a0www.catchingfireflies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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