At 10:05AM June 30th of 2015 I received a message on Facebook from my friend Capt Chris Lott who happened to be on his 9th combat deployment. It read:
The same week unbeknownst to us Tracy Thompson, who just happens to be the grandson of a Syrian refugee had the exact same idea.
So what was this idea that just had to be done as soon as possible?
This idea was the American flag Facebook profile picture overlay we all now know and love.
Capt Lott, while scrolling through his Facebook newsfeed noticed all of the turmoil in the US. He saw rainbow flag overlays and confederate flag overlays and just couldn’t help but wonder where Old Glory was.
Although thousands of miles away from each other and having never met before, Tracy Thompson was thinking the same exact thing. Here it is just a few days from July 4th and there is so much division in our country. Where is the unity? Aren’t we the United States of America? Keyword: United
Both men reached out to friends they knew and asked if it could be done. I’ll just tell my part of the story, as Chris asked me. However, keep reading I’ll mention Tracy again soon.
I received the message you read above and instantly loved the idea. At the moment I received the message I was TDY (temporary duty) and so I made a quick phone call to a friend, from 33Productions, who I met at a marketing conference a few years earlier. Needless to say she loved the idea and in less than 24 hours we had a working prototype.
Another miracle is that Facebook approved the app within another 24 hours, which can normally take up to 7 days, and by July 2nd people were able to start overlaying the American flag onto their profile pictures. Only a few weeks later we learned about Tracy’s app and joined forces growing our cause in Uniting America even more. Our American flag overlay app has been used in a combined total of close to a million users and this 4th of July we have an amazing goal that we will share with you in a few weeks.
On a side note, but very important, on my way back from the TDY I met a family from Peru. I showed them our American flag overlay app and one of them asked me, “Could you do this for my country?”
Why not? I thought to myself and I told them we would try. I approached my friend from 33Productions when I got back home, but she was actually in the middle of planning her wedding and had already helped us so much. I then asked her if it would be okay if I reached out to another developer I knew for the Peru overlay. She said that was fine, so I began the hunt.
Stay tuned for next weeks blog and the rest of the story…believe me this all has to do with Uniting America Again…you don’t want to miss this.
Respectfully,
Tony Weedn
“Uniting America Again”
#UnitingAmerica
To read our previous weeks click below:
Week 1: The Largest Social Media Campaign in History
Week 2: Car trouble, Flying kites, and Americans helping Americans
Challenges:
1) If you haven’t already Join the movement by going here
2) Share with 3 people you believe truly care about Uniting America Again
3) Comment below