Pinning It Forward

I love lapel pins because they are great conversation starters. Like unobtrusive, little miniature walking billboards, they share messages about who you are: your professional affiliations, military service, favorite sports teams, events you’ve attended, or causes that you believe in. Wear a lapel pin and you open yourself up to meeting people who are interested in your causes. Ask someone else about their pin and you’re bound to finish that conversation more enriched, more enlightened.

It’s a subtle way of ‘paying it forward’. The ‘pay it forward’ concept really hit the mainstream when the movie, Pay it Forward  (based on the book of the same name) came out in 2000. In the film, a social studies teacher challenges his students to think up a practical way to make the world a better place and put it into action. His 11-year-old student comes up with the notion of Pay it Forward. The idea is to do a needed favor for three different people without being asked, and then ask them to do the same for others. It was a new twist on performing random acts of kindness.

I was thrilled when I discovered this New York Times article , Letting His Lapel Spread the Word About His Cause, where Mark Roithmayer introduces the idea of ‘pinning it forward’.  The article, (which is definitely worth reading) profiles Roithmayer, in his role as president of the national nonprofit advocacy organization Autism Speaks. Mark travels frequently for Autism Speaks and always wears a puzzle-shaped lapel pin on his suit. The article sites several different instances when Mark’s lapel pin has started incredible conversations about autism and opened the door for introductions to people directly connected to or deeply interested in this cause.

Mark (pictured above right) says:
“I always take off my pin and give it to someone who shares his or her story. I think of it as ‘pinning forward.’ In fact, I have learned to take a small bag of pins with me whenever I travel because passengers and airline workers — even the security guys — regularly ask me for them.  And I gladly give them away.  It kind of reminds me of when pilots used to give young passengers wing pins to commemorate their flight, and maybe build a little brand loyalty in the process.”

So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time that you started your own ‘pin it forward’ campaign?