Holiday Hero: Subway Rider Returns Lost Xmas Gifts

Woman's Leaves Holiday Gifts On Subway, Only To Be Found Later By Good Samaritan Thanks To Her Own Good Deed

NEW YORK (CBS) your gifts are wrapped and ready to be mailed, but you accidentally leave them on the subway, and away they go. It happened to one New Yorker, but as luck would have it, in truly the holiday spirit, another New Yorker found them.

Christmas cheer came a few days early for Nicole Snow and Dennis Noonan, two strangers brought together by goodness and, well, Facebook. On Monday, Snow was on her way to work and the Post Office when she made a horrifying mistake.

"I get off the train to transfer to the B and I realized as I turned the corner that I had left my bags on the seat next to me," she told CBS 2.

She felt helpless.

"So I ran back to the corner right as the doors were closing and I saw the bag on the seat and I thought, that's it," she said.

Little did she know as she got off at Columbus Circle, a very observant Dennis Noonan got on, heading to 18th Street. It seems her bag of commuting Christmas goodies had an angel.

"When I realized it, the doors had already closed and so I went and got the bag the bag and thought, 'Somebody's not going to have a good Christmas,'" he said.

But it was Snow's own good deed that makes this an even better Christmas story. Just last week, she found a checkbook on the street and was mailing it to its owner in Maryland. Her return address helped Noonan find her.

"I'd completely forgotten that I'd put the envelope in there to send it back to the guy who lost his checkbook. I almost didn't send it because I thought, 'Does he really need it?' But then I thought he'd be really happy to get it back in the mail," she said.

Noonan, a loving dad, having been on the panicky side when his wife lost her driver's license in Nashville, turned to what helped then: a Facebook search. A few hours later, Snow did, too.

"Hi Nicole just wondering if you lost some gifts," Noonan wrote to Snow.

"I wrote back, 'Oh my God! I can't believe it, you're an angel!" she said.

On Tuesday, Noonan returned the gifts to Snow.

"We're trying to what we would want other people to do for us," he said.

"If I hadn't decided to send the checkbook back to that person, then my name wouldn't be on there and I wouldn't get my gifts back, and Dennis wouldn't have had the opportunity to be the good Samaritan that he is," Snow said.

Snow was so grateful she gave Noonan a thank you present. It's a wonderful holiday story that could only happen in New York City.

Australians to bin 825,000 gifts this Christmas: survey

Thu Dec 3, 4:24 am ET

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Generosity doesn't always pay during the festive season, with an Australian survey showing more than 825,000 gifts will go straight into the garbage bin this Christmas because their recipients just hate them.

The survey, commissioned by an Australian-based online self-publishing website and based on population data, revealed a third of all respondents either refund gifts or give them away, especially off-the-shelf offerings.

"An estimated 6.4 million presents will be given away, refunded, re-gifted or binned in 2009," Jo Sabin from website Blurb Australia said in a statement.

"That's a lot of wasted effort and money. The top tip for making sure that your gift is kept and valued this Christmas is to personalize it."

The survey also highlighted that more than 55 percent of all women are guilty of re-gifting unwanted presents for their friends and one in five will return the gift directly to the store.

With Australia's economy still battling to shake off the effects of the global financial crisis, more than a third of Australians plan to spend less on Christmas gifts this year, compared with the previous year, according to a recent survey by the Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank.

(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Smithsonian's National Zoo Offers a Multitude of Unique Holiday Gifts for Children, Adults and Families

By Enica R. Thompson

Washington, DC - Are you in search of a present for that special someone who has everything? The Smithsonian’s National Zoo offers a multitude of unique gifts for children, adults and families. From stocking stuffers to eco-friendly gifts or an Adopt a Species package, Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) has something for every animal lover and conservationist on your holiday shopping list.

All items listed below are available on the Zoo’s website at http://nationalzoo.si.edu and in the Zoo’s gift shops.

Stocking Stuffers

Animal Stamp Set

Just in time for mailing holiday greeting cards, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo launched a series of customized conservation stamps featuring seven Zoo animals: the giant panda, Asian elephant, Panamanian golden frog, clouded leopard, Kirtland’s warbler, Scimitar-horned oryx and western lowland gorilla. The animals represent major science programs at the Zoo. Each sheet, consisting of 20 stamps, features one animal. The value of these special stamps is equivalent to a first-class U.S. postage stamp. The stamps are $20.95 per sheet.

Birdmarks

Is your loved one a bookworm? If so, the Zoo has the perfect present! The Zoo offers special bookmarks with breathtaking pictures and information about birds, such as the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the Cedar Waxwing or the American Flamingo. The birdmarks are available for $1.99 each and proceeds directly support the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

Wine Cork Trivet Set for Wine Lovers

Don’t know what to do with your favorite wine corks? Looking for a great hostess gift this holiday season? Look no further than our wine cork trivet. Simply collect eight wine corks and twist them onto the metal base. This trivet makes a great way to reuse special wine corks. The Wine Cork Trivet Set is $10.00.

Holiday Gifts for Families

Wild Side Stage series for kids

Bring the entire family to the National Zoo for shows by acclaimed, award-winning musicians, dancers, storytellers, theater actors, and puppeteers. Performances include, Grammy nominee Brady Rymer, the singing Zoologist Lucas Miller, as well as Antonio Rocha, the 2007 Parent’s Choice Gold Award winner and many other great artists. Before or after each performance, join us for a special visit to an animal house where you will get a chance to meet-and-greet keepers, as well as animals featured in the performances! Wild Side Stage performances take place in the Zoo’s Visitors Center Auditorium January 10 & 24, February 7, 21 & 28 and March 7. Tickets are $5 for members and $7 for nonmembers. Beginning Dec. 1, tickets can be purchased on the Zoo’s website and in the Zoo’s Asia Trail Store and Panda Gift Shop. Kids under age two are free!

Let your kids discover the “Wonderful World of Animals”

Is your kid crazy about animals? “Wonderful World of Animals” will make the perfect present! Stunning photographs and favorite Disney characters help children discover the magic of wildlife. This book is written by the National Zoo’s very own Dr. Don Moore. The “Wonderful World of Animals” is $12.99.

P.U! The Guessing Game of Smells

The mischievous Stinky Smells the Skunk is on the loose with his stinky Smellorator! In P.U! The Guessing Game of Smells, players race around a large exciting board full of good, bad, and mystery smells. Whose nose knows best? Land on a smell spot, draw a card, and guess its smell. Be the first to cross the finish line and stop Stinky from polluting and ruining the town fair! The game is designed for children ages five and up costs $29.95.

Giant Panda Cookie Jar

A must-have for every kitchen of an animal lover, the Giant Panda Cookie Jar makes eating cookies even more enjoyable. The Giant Panda Cookie Jar is $18.00 – an exclusive item at the National Zoo.

Giving Tree: Help provide the Zoo's animals with great enrichment items

Enrichment is an integral part of the daily care of the animals in the National Zoo. It helps animals demonstrate their natural behavior, adds variety to their day, allows them exercise, gives them choices in their environment, and enhances their well-being. Enrichment also gives Zoo scientists the chance to study and observe the animals' behavior.

Zoo staff has created a wish list of items that you can buy and donate to the Zoo, including Kong toys, rubber chew toys, mirrors, laser pointers, radios, feeder balls, feather dusters, tools, and much, much more. Items can be purchased and/or donations can be made on the Zoo’s online enrichment store or you can drop off or purchase at the Giant Panda Gift Shop. Additionally, special Giving Tree toy chests will be set up throughout the Zoo during our annual ZooLights event.

To donate, visit the Zoo’s website at: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/MakeDonation/GivingTree.cfm.

Eco-friendly Items

Give the gift of conservation and make the season bright for your friends and family with trendy, eco-friendly gifts.

Colored Pencil Necklace

Everyday objects elevated to art. That is what designer Amy Pfaffman does with her beautiful recycled jewelry pieces. She finds beauty in all objects and gives cast-offs a new life. Express yourself through green jewelry with this Colored Pencil Necklace, which retails for $64.00.

Large Folding Chopstick Basket

Unique, Practical, Green...this folding basket is amazing! They are strong so you can load them up, and the superior air circulation keeps fruits and veggies fresh. They are also perfect for holding nuts, serving bread or just as a display piece. The foldable design makes them easy to store, which makes them not only great for home and office, but also for camping and picnics and is a nice recycled item for yourself or to give as a gift. It is important for everybody to do what they can to help keep our planet green. Recycling and buying recycled products is a good start. Using discarded disposable chopsticks is just one example of making recycled products from a resource that would otherwise be waste. The Chopstick Basket is $24.00.

Make a Difference—Adopt a Species

The Adopt a Species program helps support the care of 2,000 animals at the Zoo and its Conservation and Research Center. Adopt a Species makes a great gift for a great cause. Featured creatures include the North Island Brown Kiwi, Asian Elephants, and the Panamanian Golden Frog. Your loved one will receive a plush stuffed animal in its very own animal carrier complete with air holes and a “Do Not Feed” label. Packages range from $40 to $1,000 and also includes a tote bag, personalized certificate, and color animal photo. Your gift will support conservation efforts and exhibit improvements, as well as allow for the purchase of medical supplies and enrichment items.

For a Gift that Lasts the Whole Year Long… Give Friends of the National Zoo Gift Membership

This year, make your friends our friends, with a Friends of the National Zoo holiday gift membership package. A FONZ gift membership at the Household or Donor level will provide your loved ones with a year’s worth of great benefits, such as free parking at the Zoo, discounts on tickets to popular Zoo events, discounts in our gift shops and much more. Plus, with this special holiday gift package, they’ll receive a cuddly plush panda, our full-color Smithsonian Zoogoer calendar, and coupons for extra discounts at the Zoo. As the gift giver, you’ll receive free animal wallpaper for your computer to show our appreciation. Purchase your holiday gift membership package today.

Give a gift that helps the National Zoo’s clouded leopards

Help the Zoo build a new home for our endangered clouded leopards by making a cheerful gift to the Zoo. Our clouded leopards housed at the Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center currently live in a facility that was built in 1911. The new home will provide them with the environment they need to thrive. The new facility will cost $2 million and the Zoo can’t build the new facility without your help. Donation levels begin at $100. Visit our website at www.fonz.org/savecloudedleopards.htm.

Gifts needed for Christmas boxes

Capital City Weekly
JUNEAU - Chapel By the Lake will serve as a collection point for Operation Christmas Child, the world's largest Christmas project. Juneau residents will pack shoebox gifts for children in more than 100 countries around the world.
This year, organizers hope to collect 2,435 gift-filled shoeboxes from families, kids, churches, schools and civic organizations in the area. School supplies, toys, necessity items, hard candy and letters of encouragement are suggest items for shoeboxes.

Wedding Gifts

In buying wedding gifts, always keep in mind your budget and be sure to get the look you want to achieve on your purchased items. Here are some gift ideas that would surely be a hit:

Tapestry It is nice to remember your wedding day, and how else can you do this? Personalize your ordinary belongings by printing the couple's picture on them. You can have it printed in your pillows, blankets or bags. Print them on tapestry wall hangings and keep them as an heirloom. Colorful cotton threads can make your pictures come to life with its vivid colors similar to the photograph itself.

Photo Frames Keep your memorable pictures in unique photo frames. You can add on sweet messages like 'sweethearts forever' or 'perfect couple'. Sweet lines from songs or poems are greatly recommended too. You can choose from the different frames available like natural wood, quality plastic, or metal steel. Personal messages are mostly laser engraved or wood cut-outs. The couple would love putting there favorite wedding photos to keep them reminded of the bliss of their special day.

T-shirts Add your own personality and thoughts and get them printed in comfortable tees. Most couples would love to profess their love for each other in cute shirts. The most common of these shirts are the word 'I' that comes with a big red heart and the name of the groom or bride. Tell the world how you feel towards a person with these personalize tees. To add a little intimacy, you can also opt to print sweet messages on under wears and undershirts too.

Accessories Women love accessories. Bracelets are perfect items to be personalized. You can opt to choose fancy gold, sterling silver or even 10 karat - 25 karat gold. This depends on your budget, of course. But remember, it's always the thought that counts. Recommended words that you can put on the bracelets are the date of your wedding day, your anniversary or the couple's name. You can opt to personalize rings and necklaces as well.

Mugs Mugs are very functional. If giving a present to the groom, customizing his beer mug or wine glass would surely be appreciated. Be sure to choose mugs that exude manly elegance. Black or brown mugs would definitely look nice and the personal message would be a real stand out.

Clocks You can either choose to purchase a wall clock or personal watch. Either way, you can be assured that the recipient of the gift would find them very useful. Engraving one's name on a metal steel sports watch is an eye catcher too. A pocket watch would equally be valued.

Gift Card

For a standard stored value gift card programme, merchants can use different types of promotions to increase the level of excitement. For example, creating a swipe and win sweepstakes when the gift card is redeemed is an excellent way to drive additional sales. Think about it: your customers are purchasing a gift card that has a certain value, and the person they give it to has the opportunity to not only redeem their gift card for your product or service, but also to potentially win a prize. Who wouldn't want to give a gift card that may make the recipient a big winner?


Another opportunity that can benefit both the merchant and the customer is the use of receipt coupons, or custom coupons, as part of your gift card programme. You can use these coupons to drive customers to locations that need an increase in traffic. Or better yet, make your coupons applicable to certain times of the day when traffic isn't as high as you'd like it to be. For example, many restaurants are finding this an effective way to drive traffic to days of the week or times of the day that are not traditionally strong for them. Giving customers a free appetizer or dessert is a great marketing investment for creating a busy restaurant during traditionally slow periods.

If you are using stored value cards as a cash replacement and you want customers to re-load their cards, give them a bonus when they add value to the card. An excellent way of encouraging the re-load is by adding custom messages on the receipt as the value of the card is depleted. An alert like "Your card value is $10 (or £5). Re-load your card with US$50 (or £35) and get a coupon for a free coffee" alerts customers to their card status. Implementing the reward is as simple as printing a coupon for the free item as part of the re-load transaction.


Loyalty programmes have long used the practice of leveraging perceived value to make them more attractive by rewarding customers for the right kind of behaviour (the profitable, coming-back-often kind). Stored value gift card programmes can make use of the same practice. But exactly what is the perceived value, how does it differ from actual value, and how can it be applied?

If you visit the redemption page of your favourite loyalty programme, you may find that some awards seem more attractive than others. For example on a frequent flier programme site you might see that a free flight anywhere in North America "costs" 25,000 points. One night in a hotel also "costs" 25,000 points. Now wait just a minute - that flight is worth US$700 and that hotel night is worth US$150. Is the airline taking advantage of you if you redeem for the hotel night?

Well, if you need both a flight and a hotel night, it is obvious where you should use those points - on the flight, hands down. The key to understanding why the flight seems like such a good deal (and the hotel less of a deal) is to stand in the shoes of the CEO of the airline. To put you in a seat on the airline (that would have otherwise been empty) costs the airline less than US$100. The CEO's best marketing team can't get free hotel nights from the hotels so that hotel night is probably costing the airline about the same as the free flight. You are being treated fairly.

The airline is simply leveraging the difference between the actual cost of the air ticket and the value you associate with it (the perceived value). That's why airline, hotel, retail, restaurant and other loyalty programmes usually offer their own product or service as the base reward in their programmes - it simply is the most cost effective way to provide value.

Restaurateurs are in exactly the same situation - the cost of providing a meal is probably the lowest expense reward they can provide. It makes it a challenge to create meaningful rewards of similar value that aren't based on the core dining service.


Take heart, there are other classic examples of leveraging perceived value. If you can offer something that is difficult to put a price on - priority service, a backstage pass, a ticket on the 50 yard line at the Superbowl - you have an opportunity to create extreme perceived value. There are thousands of marketing programmes that generate excitement, entries into draws, and traffic by using exclusive opportunities as their drawing card. Think of your stored value gift card promotions in the same light and offer similar rewards as part of your gift card swipe and win sweepstakes to increase gift card usage.

Look inside your own business and see what you have to offer - a reservation on a Friday night at your exclusive flagship location, a guided wine tasting by your chief wine steward, tickets to a sports event provided by one of your suppliers, even a gift for children in the dining party. These are all opportunities to create a reward with high perceived value and low cost. Ask your customers and they will tell you what they value highly.

If you can find something your customers prize that you can provide at little or no cost, you will have an effective tool to use inside your loyalty or gift card marketing programme. Look hard - it's worth the effort!

Miramichi Miracles

Miramichi Miracles

by Barbara Righton

'Small Gifts' is a Christmas movie, yes. Bit it is more about the triumph of the human spirit right here on Earth

Anyone who has ever been broke enough to roll pennies... anyone who has ever faced a jobless future or a freezing winter night stalled on the side of a road ... Anyone whose mother-in-law has ever disapproved of them ... In other words, almost everyone in Canada will find something familiar in Small Gifts, the CBC movie which charmed critics when it premiered at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1993 and then languished on the shelf. It is the simple, kind and sometimes startling story of a young couple, Evan (Jeremy Ratchford) and Nora (Jessica Steen), whose everyday lives are complicated by a terrible, grinding lack of cash and dim prospects in northern New Brunswick's Miramichi region. It is a Christmas story in as much as the sets, the interior of the couple's cramped house trailer, and the church and the town centre are decorated with garlands and crèches. But its sentiments transcend the sappiness of many such dramas. Written by Governor General's Award-winning novelist David Adams Richards, Small Gifts is about the strength of the human spirit. Its miracles are earthly but eloquent. Best of all, Small Gifts gets better with repeated viewings. Next winter, when it is bound to air again during the holiday season, audiences can welcome it as an old friend.

Richards, speaking by telephone from his home in the Miramichi, talks about the beginning stages of Small Gifts. Before he won the Governor General's Award in 1988 (for his novel Nights Below Station Street), Richards says he had already finished a script, "but it didn't come alive. And then I had an idea About young kids at Christmas with no money. The CBC was interested in a novel but when I sent them this script they said, 'Sure.' I had no more than signed the contract than another film company called." Richards is now working on a third screenplay (of his 1993 novel For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down), but if it was easy to sell Small Gifts, he knows the television business has its drawbacks. "When your work is taken away and done by different people, you are never 100 per cent happy," Richards says. "I understand why screenwriters get involved in directing. Still, I think the effort is admirable. I hope there is a certain degree of graciousness and generosity in the script that enables everyone to like it."

There is. There is also a certain amount of rum. In fact, the residents of the frigid landscape in Small Gifts - the main characters, their best friend, the local RCMP officer, the priest, and Evan's burnt-out father (actor Don Francks having a hammy good time) all seem to drink copious quantities. "No, no," says Richards. "Those are the same two mickies throughout."

Ratchford, whose Evan will remind fans of Ox, the character he once played on The Campbells, laughs when he is asked about the booze in the show. Offscreen his gravelly voice suggests a certain proclivity; which he doesn't mind admitting. In fact, the Kitchener, Ont.-born actor, 29, seems like a good ol' boy right down to the Miramichi accent he can still sport nearly two years after filming. Ask him about the beaver pond scene (pivotal, though improbable, so we won't spoil it here) and he chalks it up to "masculinity." Serious for just a few minutes, Ratchford extols the virtues of Small Gifts and then adds, "Oh, God. If it was a bad Christmas movie, can you imagine? It would have been on every year. I would have had to move."

His leading lady, Steen, already has. Although she is now filming Earth 2 in Santa Fe, N.M., the 28-year-old Toronto native is still best known for the ABC drama series, Homefront. "It was a very high pressure show," she, recalls. "It's different to work at home, especially with a hoser like Jeremy. It, was cold [both in Toronto and on location in New Brunswick in February] but it was so much fun. I like that Small Gifts is not bright red and really sparkly." She adds, "The only control an actor has is to promote constructive entertainment in the parts they choose. Unless they have been sitting on the couch too long…"

Sit on the couch for just two hours Sunday and see what she means.