and the

Jones County Chamber of Commerce cordially invite you to attend a Business After Hours reception in honor of the Leadership Jones County Class of 2012

Members of the 184th

Expeditionary Sustainment Command,

and

Major Ailrick Young, Humanitarian Assistance Officer

will offer remarks.

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art

5th Avenue at 7th Street - Laurel, MS

Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 5:30 p.m

RSVP by Friday, August 5, 2010

to (601) 649-3031 or delanam@edajones.com

Refreshments will be served. Business Attire.

There is one thing one has to have: either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and knowledge.   

~ Friedrich Nietzsche 

Wouldn't we all love to become millionaires? What about millionaires before the age of 27? Seems impossible, right? In our current economy it sounds like the kind of thing we only hear about in the tabloids or watch in Hollywood movies. It has actually been happening in this country for many years. The power of ingenuity and creativeness in the US is astounding and it has been happening almost since the country was formed. One such success story that I recently learned about was that of 27 year old Joe McVicker. Have you heard of him? Do you know him? You may not know his name but I am sure you know his product.

Following World War II, Joseph McVicker joined his uncle Noah McVicker at Kutol Products, a family-owned Cincinnati-based soap company. Noah had concocted a non-toxic, non-staining pliable, putty-like wallpaper cleaner for Kutol which had been selling steadily since the 1930s. Joe had learned from a teacher that modeling clay used by children in the classrooms was often too difficult for many of the smaller children to manipulate. The non-toxic composition he and his uncle worked on as a wallpaper cleaner was easy to manipulate and could possibly work as a substitute for the typical modeling clay the schools were using.

In 1956, Play-Doh Brand Modeling Compound, a non-toxic reusable modeling compound developed and introduced by Rainbow Crafts in Cincinnati, was first demonstrated and sold in the toy department of Woodward & Lothrop Department Store in Washington, D.C. The "children's toy" had been tested and introduced one year earlier (1955) in select schools, kindergartens and nursery schools. Ten years (1965) after Play-Doh was first introduced, U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 was granted to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a "plastic modeling composition of a soft, playable working consistency" that eventually became a product known as Play-Doh. Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker founded Rainbow Crafts to start manufacturing their product.

Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts. Advertisements promoting Play-Doh on influential children's television shows in 1957 furthered the product's sales. Since its launch on the toy market in the mid-1950s, Play-Doh has generated a considerable amount of ancillary merchandise. In 2003, the Toy Industry Association named Play-Doh to its "Century of Toys List", a roll call of the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the twentieth century. To date, over seven hundred million pounds of Play-Doh have been sold. More than two billion cans of Play-Doh were sold between 1955 and 2005 and, in 2005, Play-doh was being sold in 75 countries around the world at 95 million cans a year. To mark Play-Doh's fiftieth anniversary, Demeter Fragrance Library created a limited-edition fragrance inspired by Play-Doh's odor for "highly-creative people, who seek a whimsical scent reminiscent of their childhood."

When Noah and Joe McVicker developed their wallpaper cleaner, little did they know they would create the substance of childhood memories as well as many a childhood meal. They simply wanted to make their product better, safer and more marketable. What are you working on? What other uses do your products have? Is there an untapped market for your product or service?

National Play-Doh Day is September 18th. Let's pop open a can and make some memories and while you're at it, let's put Jones County on the roll of the next 100 most memorable and most creative ideas! Happy modeling!

- This article was sourced from: The 50 Year History of Play-Doh, Wikipedia.org and about.com 

Wednesday, August 10 

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Be clear about your goal but be flexible about the process of achieving it." 

~ Brian Tracy

"The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way."

~ Robert Kiyosaki

"May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far." 

~ Irish Blessings

"Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything."

~ Napoleon Hill

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

~ Gustave Flaubert