PP 355: Out of Bad Comes Good

Kim Sutton:  Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. You know that within podcast title like Positive Productivity, I usually like to share positive information. However, today’s podcast is going to come with a little bit of a what the heck type of story with a positive ending. So just bear with me for a moment. 

The overall theme of today’s episode is Out of Bad, Comes Good. And it started just about two weeks ago with some devastating news that broke on a Facebook group that a lot of parents in my town are a part of, because we all have sixth grade students who were scheduled to go on a trip to Washington, DC. And just a few weeks, one of the other parents posted a link to a story they had just heard that the tour company that was organizing and had accepted payments for our kids’ trips had unexpectedly canceled another school trip the night before the kids were expected to leave. Some of the parents were a little bit concerned. And they posted the link to the article in the group because they wanted us to all be aware and just keep our eyes open in case we saw any other similar news articles come out. 

Now, as you can imagine, there was more than a fair bit of concern, and we started inquiring, me included, with the school district just to make sure that our kids trips were going to be going forward as scheduled. That my son in his sixth grade class was planning to go to Washington DC for a week-long trip, which would include hotel, food and bus arrangements, and we had paid $810 a piece across three payments to ensure that this trip happened. So we, as you can probably imagine, we’re just a little bit concerned about all that money. As the day went on the following day, we didn’t hear anything back from the school district immediately. They tried to contact the tour company, but we’re not getting any response. And more news kept on breaking throughout the state that the same was happening to other school districts. 

By the end of the day, we did receive the dreaded news that the tour company was canceling all trips and was providing no further communication. The subject of their email simply stated that they had ceased operations and that all plan trips were canceled. As news continued to break throughout the state of Ohio, there ended up being 5,700 parents statewide who had invested in chips for their kids, and all the trips were canceled. 

Now, in my small town in Ohio, $810 is a ton of money, and I’m sure it is elsewhere in the nation and also in the world. But in our small town, there are parents who $810 could easily pay one or two months rent for their entire family. We didn’t know what to do so we were all told to file disputes with our credit card companies and banks. And we resorted to the fact that our kids were going to be disappointed and not go on their trip. 

But the community heard about the heartbreak. And the communities across the state heard about their own local heartbreaks with students. And throughout the state of Ohio, you can look up stories now that share that businesses statewide have come together to fund trips for their students to go on their original trips, maybe not for the extended time originally planned, but at least still go. This is what has happened for our school district. A local tour company is paying for the whole trip. And other businesses are coming together to do fundraising to pay that company back. And they’re not asking for a penny from the students or from the parents. 

I know this isn’t directly related to entrepreneurship, but I want you to know that whatever bad you’re going through right now, something good will come out of it.

The situation with kids statewide is given a new sense of hope and a little bit of disgust towards the other company. I have to admit, but a new sense of hope to the good nature and good hearts of people all around. So often, we see sad news on social media, and there needs to be more good like this being shared. 

We had no idea. I have to admit, no hope that our kids were still going to go. The bus companies had never been paid, the hotels had never been paid. But you better believe that these parents, my ex husband and I included, had made all of our payments on schedule. But without those bus reservations and hotel reservations, we didn’t think it would be possible. Never, ever give up hope. There’s always another way. When you keep your eyes open and your chin up, something good will come out of every single bad situation. 

Now, with all this said, I want you to go forth, keep your chin up, and make it a positive and productive day.