Today is Herby’s birthday. He is on spring break and sunning on the beach. 🙂
Some of you may not know Herby. Allow me to introduce you to him. Herby is the mascot of sorts for the DC4K (DivorceCare for Kids) program. Children all over the world are enjoying the feelings that Herby’s puppet faces express. They are getting acquainted with their own feelings through Herby. These children have come to love this little fellow because he represents DC4K and the love, respect, safety and connections kids have in a DC4K group. Children talk to Herby and express their concerns.
The Herby hand-held puppet is fifteen years old and was created specifically for the DC4K program. Herby had quite a journey getting to the Church Initiative offices in North Carolina. He was made in a factory in China and shipped from China on a boat to the US. He got stuck in a labor strike in California and for several days we thought we were going to have to fly someone to California, rent a truck and bring Herby to North Carolina. As soon as the strike ended and they were able to get him off the boat, he was loaded up and shipped to us. He arrived in the office in North Carolina on March 11th, the same day as my birthday. Therefore Herby and I share March 11th as the same birthday.
To date we have equipped hundreds of churches in the US, Canada and in many other countries with the DC4K materials and that includes our little Herby puppet.
While we knew DC4K would be popular in the United States, we are pleasantly surprised at the many overseas countries that are now hosting DC4K groups. Following are just a few places where kits were shipped recently.
Egypt
Singapore
Kenya – Eldoret, Kitale, Nairobi
South Africa – Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria
Australia – Bridgeman Downs Queensland, Hurtsville Grove NSW (New South Wales) and Bowral NSW
Who knew that our little fella would be impacting so many children?
♫♫♫Happy Birthday Herby. ♫♫♫
In case you are wondering about the place in China where Herby was birthed, I’m including a picture of the factory. I wanted to make sure that slave labor was not being used to design and create Herby. Here is a picture of the factory in China and one of the people working on the Herby design. It was interesting working with the people in China. They were very accommodating especially when I said Herby could not be white. Can you just imagine all those little finger prints on him?
One of Herby’s creators.
Some of Herby’s friends greeting him for the first time.
That’s me in the middle.
