I don’t know exactly who did the study… but I remember hearing a statistic one time that working in an advertising agency is one of the world’s most stressful occupations. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with that, but I’m pretty sure that those working in any type of advertising agency won’t disagree.

At ProspectMX, we try to do a variety of activities to counter balance the stress of working for one of the busiest web marketing companies around. And almost all of us have different things we do to relieve stress.

Some of us carry Nerf guns around the building and shoot darts at co-workers. Some of us wear t-shirts with funny one-liners that only geeks can enjoy.

And some of us, well… some of us smash pies in the face of our bosses.

Last week, as the culmination of a series of events and activities that raised over $1600 for March of Dimes, the co-founders of ProspectMX donned trash bags and had all of their employees gather outside during a lunch break for an especially sweet event.

Three lucky employees got to live the dream with an opportunity to “pie” Rory Wilfong, Steve Young, and Dave Conklin. And it was all done in the name of raising money for March of Dimes.

Luckily, we caught the event on film…

Rory, Steve, and Dave (along with COO John Fraunfelter, Sales Manager Jim Bradford and Customer Success Specialist Mike King of a real estate marketing company) got pied by individuals who placed the highest bid on a pie during a week long silent auction fundraiser held for company employees in April. All funds raised during the silent auction were given to March of Dimes.

All proceeds raised and donated to the March of Dimes helps fund research and efforts to reduce premature births, birth defects, and infant mortality. To date, ProspectMX has helped raise over $1600 to benefit the March for Babies campaign.

Normally, we keep the commentary on our blog related to the microcosm of internet marketing and how it can help your business succeed. Sometimes, however, a cause is too good to pass up mentioning. Esbenshade’s, a garden center and greenhouse located in Litiz, PA - is teaming up with Youth with a Mission International (YWAM) to provide these temporary houses to the homeless in Haiti.

What Are Hoop Houses?

Hoop houses are low cost, easy to assemble greenhouses. To simply explain it, a hoop house is a greenhouse with a plastic roof draped over plastic piping. The hoop houses Esbenshade’s has sent to Haiti are pre-fabricated and customized at the company’s greenhouse.

According to the team at Esbenshade’s, nearly one million temporary homes are needed to shelter the homeless earthquake survivors in Haiti. To help, they have designed and constructed 14- x 16-foot “hoop houses” that can provide a temporary home for a family of up to five.

How Esbenshade’s Is Helping Haiti

Two hundred homes left a Florida port on Monday. When the houses arrived at the port of St. Marc in Haiti, a team of local YWAM personnel and construction volunteers from the Lancaster-area met the shipment. In total, YWAM plans on constructing 100 homes per acre - in total providing about 1,000 homes for Haiti’s homeless.

Esbenshade’s would greatly appreciate any financial contributions from the public to help continue the Hoop Houses for Haiti effort. The cost for one home (including materials and shipping) is around $300. Anyone in the Lancaster-area who is interested in volunteering their time and energy to assemble the hoop house materials in Litiz are also appreciated. Of course, volunteers are also in high demand in Haiti - for hoop house assembly and a variety of other causes.

Anyone looking for more information on Esbenshade’s Hoop Houses for Haiti program should call 717.626.7007 or visit Esbenshades.com.

Tomorrow, December 2, ProspectMX is partnering with the League of Lancaster Bicyclists (LLB) to gather toy donations for a local non-profit group. This blog post was written by Jonathan Bentz - jonathanbentz.gooruze.com.

The League of Lancaster Bicyclists will be hosting a ride in Quarryville, PA to raise awareness for the local toy drive. The world headquarters of ProspectMX will serve as a toy drop-off destination. Good’s Store in Quarryville will also serve as a drop off location.

ProspectMX and the LLB need your help. The local non-profit is around 100 toys short from their toy goal for area children in need. If the organization doesn’t acquire its number of toys, THEN THE KIDS DON’T GET TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS!

How you can help:

1. Stop by one of the many area retailers that sells toys and pick one up.
2. Get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside as you purchase your toy.
3. Drive from area retailer to ProspectMX World Headquarters to drop your toy off.

Here’s ProspectMX’s address:

ProspectMX
221 Rohrerstown Road
Lancaster, PA 17603

Lancaster-Area Small Business Owners And Marketing Pros, Listen Up!

As an added bonus to you for helping ProspectMX make dreams come true this holiday season, stop by our offices and you can receive a FREE website consultation with one of our knowledgeable internet marketing consultants. Its the least we can do to show you how much we appreciate your generosity this holiday season.

For more information on the bike ride and toy collection, happening this Wednesday from 9am - 6pm, please give me a call at 717.406.1884. You can also hit me (@jonathanbentz) or Dave Conklin (@prospectmx) on Twitter and we’ll get you all the details.

Thanks in advance for your help this holiday season - we really appreciate it!

‘Tis the season to grant wishes, and the team at ProspectMX has the spirit in 2008.

In order to do something special for those that spend all year working for the needs of others, we are proud to announce the ProspectMX Christmas Wish.

If your non-profit organization would like to receive $10,000 in internet marketing services from our company, we invite you to answer the following question on your blog or website between today (12/11) and the end of the year (12/31):

“How can internet marketing benefit your organization?”

Runner-up prizes are also available, including a year-long subscription to the SEO 101 Tools (launching this January), a three-month subscription to SEOmoz PRO (which includes Linkscape), and a three-month subscription to trackur - a social media monitoring service.

In order for an organization to be considered, it must have 501 3(c) status. Here’s what any interested non-profit needs to do:

1. Compose a blog post or web essay that answers the question “how can internet marketing benefit your organization?”
2. Drop a note in the comments of this blog post that includes a link to your entry (just so we can be 100% sure we got your entry).

Official rules are listed here. For more information on the ProspectMX Christmas Wish, you can e-mail me: jbentz [at] prospectmx [dot] com.