As a kid, I was inspired by the cartoon, The Get Along Gang. I thought all communities had a moose leading them through adventures and learning and I wanted to be part of it.
At the height of the shows success, you could order the kit to start your own ‘get along gang’ in your neighborhood, so I did. It gave me "permission" in the eyes of the other kids to collaborate in the mini adventures we created on the playground, craft time and even me creating "school reading and math sessions" with books from my teachers.
This was my first leadership experience and I still see myself as the same leader seeking human connection, empathy and adventure.
".... I would just use the kit that I ordered, as a tool for getting ideas about what to do with the different neighborhood kids."
The Get Along Gang is a group of characters created in 1983 by Tony Byrd, Tom Jacobs, Ralph Shaffer, Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, and Mark Spangler for American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, "Those Characters from Cleveland" now Cloudco Entertainment), for a series of greeting cards. The Get Along Gang is a group of 6 pre-adolescentanthropomorphicanimal characters in the fictional town of Green Meadow, who form a club that meets in an abandoned caboose and who have various adventures whose upbeat stories were intended to show the importance of teamwork and friendship. The success of the greeting card line led to a Saturday morning television series, which aired on CBS for 13 episodes in the 1984–1985 season, with reruns showing from January to June 1986.
We coach extraordinary leaders and develop empathy as core competency with love, community, excellence, creativity, innovation and fun.