30 Tips for McGruff’s 30th Anniversary

1.Give McGruff a 30th birthday gift. Make a donation at NCPC Click here to Donate!.

2.Send happy birthday messages to McGruff the Crime Dog via NCPC’s Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace accounts.

3.Host a Celebrate Safe Communities event in October during National Crime Prevention Month.  Celebrate Safe Communities officially kicks off October 7-9, 2010.

4.Rock the Retro t-shirt.  Purchase a McGruff retro t-shirt and encourage your friends to wear them too.

5.Write a jingle to help celebrate McGruff’s 30th anniversary.  Challenge others to do the same and send them to NCPC so we can post them on the website.

6.Participate in a Happy 30th Birthday McGruff Video Challenge where you and your friends or other students create a video showing McGruff what you have done in your neighborhood/community to help “Take A Bite Out Of Crime”.

7.Tell NCPC about the officers who volunteer to portray McGruff in costume.  Let us know how many appearances have they made, were they honored locally, or have they done something special we should know about?

8.Send your local law enforcement officer a thank you letter to tell them how much you appreciate the time and effort they put in to protect you, your family, your neighborhood, and your community or plan a gathering in your local community to thank all the law enforcement officers that have worn or still wear the McGruff costume.

9.Ask local officials to make a resolution or proclamation commemorating McGruff’s 30th anniversary and celebrating local crime prevention successes in your community!

10.Join NCPC’s Facebook Causes to raise money for McGruff or encourage your friends to become fans of NCPC’s and McGruff’s Facebook page.

11.Host a neighborhood book club focusing on the Circle of Respect book of the month.  Listen to the podcasts from authors like Tina Wells, Rosalind Wiseman, Rachel Simmons, and Deborah Norville.  Discuss what you learned and how to change the culture of online aggression in a forum or blog on the Internet.

12.Contact local sports teams and ask for help from your local police department to have McGruff the Crime Dog throw out the first pitch at sporting events or show NCPC’s public service announcements on the jumbotron at the stadium.

13.Hold a McGruff Cake Bake-Off to help raise funds to help the Crime Dog be able to create and share more crime prevention resources nationwide.

14.Work with the local library or recreation center to host an information fair for parents and families, providing materials on family and child safety issues.

15.Make an “I love McGruff” video for fun. Challenge your friends to make them too.  Tell NCPC why you love McGruff and we’ll post it to our YouTube channel.

16.Call your local newspapers to ask them to show their support for McGruff’s 30th birthday on July 1st.  Ask them to run a daily crime prevention tip from McGruff and NCPC the week of June 28, 2010.

17.Plan a McGruff appearance at a local community event. Contact your local police department to ask them to bring McGruff out to your event.

18.Participate, organize, or reinvigorate a neighborhood watch program in your neighborhood.  Get the community members together for monthly meetings to discuss crime rates, issues with the community, and how to use crime prevention strategies to resolve problems.

19.If your neighborhood watch has a newsletter, ask to put crime prevention tips on different topics into each newsletter or plan to hand out reproducible brochures on July 1st from NCPC that address a community crime problem.

20.Hold a McGruff scavenger hunt in your community where parents, teens, and kids can join in hours of fun within the community to find clues to get to the next location.  This hunt can give community members helpful ways to prevent crime, safety tips, and fun facts about McGruff.

21.Plan a Halloween fest in your community during Crime Prevention Month in October. You can purchase McGruff Halloween bags to give out goodies and safety information.

22.Promote stories about recent successes with crime prevention programs to the local media, highlighting the role of community members and partnership with law enforcement.

23.Provide local media contacts with McGruff’s crime prevention tips, add local law enforcement contacts, and urge the media to promote this vital information during October and year round.

24.Find a local company or media outlet to sponsor a “Community Shredding Day” where residents can learn about identity theft and shred documents containing personal and/or financial information.

25.Hold an Internet and technology safety session to share important prevention information with parents about cyberbullying, sexting, and other cybercrime issues so parents can learn how to protect their children.

26.Organize a McGruff birthday card contest for kids in the school or neighborhood and send them to NCPC to post on our website.

27.Ask if McGruff can participate in your local community Fourth of July parade where he can be on a float or walk the parade in celebration of his birthday on July 1st.

28.Create a flash mob (spontaneous gathering) by texting a bunch of people to show up at one location to take photos with McGruff or in your retro t-shirts.

29.Create McGruff 30th anniversary signs for people to post in stores, front yards, etc.

30.Send NCPC your photos with McGruff (media@ncpc.org).  You can get creative or have a little fun by using photo editing software to show you and McGruff visiting places around the world like the Eiffel Tower or Antarctica!