# data[].attributes.headline
The School Yard – Education, our passion. Giving back, our promise

# data[].attributes.subject
The School Yard – Education, our passion. Giving back, our promise

# data[].attributes.headline
I learned to keep a positive mindset while going through difficult times.  Why?  It helped me remain calmer so I could concentrate on the situation before me.  Around 10 months ago, I began working out regularly.  I am determined to be at a healthy weight, increase my strength and eating healthier. I want to remain flexible and agile as I age. My goals are  written down and I recite my long-term goal several times a day.  

# data[].attributes.subject
I learned to keep a positive mindset while going through difficult times.  Why?  It helped me remain calmer so I could concentrate on the situation before me.  Around 10 months ago, I began working out regularly.  I am determined to be at a healthy weight, increase my strength and eating healthier. I want to remain flexible and agile as I age. My goals are  written down and I recite my long-term goal several times a day.  

# data[].attributes.body
Naomi

# data[].attributes.headline
I had to take a PE class to complete my degree at Whitworth which I just finished last week, and when I first started it, I felt silly taking PE again. Health and wellness has always been a passion of mine, so I didn't think there was anything else I could learn. My new "WHY" is moving around, feeding my body healthy, and having a healthy mind set because it makes me feel better. I take walks at lunch to get my steps in, track my food, and always have my water next to me. All of these make me feel better physically and mentally. My "WHY" is also because I want to show up every day as my best me! When I feel good, I do good!

# data[].attributes.subject
I had to take a PE class to complete my degree at Whitworth which I just finished last week, and when I first started it, I felt silly taking PE again. Health and wellness has always been a passion of mine, so I didn't think there was anything else I could learn. My new "WHY" is moving around, feeding my body healthy, and having a healthy mind set because it makes me feel better. I take walks at lunch to get my steps in, track my food, and always have my water next to me. All of these make me feel better physically and mentally. My "WHY" is also because I want to show up every day as my best me! When I feel good, I do good!

# data[].attributes.body
Ashley R

# data[].attributes.headline
I have previously read the book “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek. My biggest take away from it was to make sure that your WHY aligns with your values in life. When your WHY aligns with your values, it is that much of a bigger drive to keep you going through the high roads and the valleys in life. It’s definitely a great book!  A helpful experience has been to track my progression and have something in front of me to remind me to keep going, when the going gets tough. Change happens over time. As someone once told me, “A successful year consists of 365 successful days.”  I just remind myself to conquer one day at a time and focus on my “WHY”.

# data[].attributes.subject
I have previously read the book “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek. My biggest take away from it was to make sure that your WHY aligns with your values in life. When your WHY aligns with your values, it is that much of a bigger drive to keep you going through the high roads and the valleys in life. It’s definitely a great book!  A helpful experience has been to track my progression and have something in front of me to remind me to keep going, when the going gets tough. Change happens over time. As someone once told me, “A successful year consists of 365 successful days.”  I just remind myself to conquer one day at a time and focus on my “WHY”.

# data[].attributes.body
Viktoriya B.

# data[].attributes.headline
 I found that I was having a bit of a hard time drinking water and getting up to move. As silly as this sounds, reminder apps are what work best for me. I have one that reminds me to drink water at specified times and I can log how much I've had during the day and see where I am in comparison to the goal I set. I set the Fitbit to buzz a few times a day with a little remider to "get up and move". It's easy to forget about yourself when you prioritize others and their needs. It's little things like these that really help me remember to do things for myself. 

# data[].attributes.subject
 I found that I was having a bit of a hard time drinking water and getting up to move. As silly as this sounds, reminder apps are what work best for me. I have one that reminds me to drink water at specified times and I can log how much I've had during the day and see where I am in comparison to the goal I set. I set the Fitbit to buzz a few times a day with a little remider to "get up and move". It's easy to forget about yourself when you prioritize others and their needs. It's little things like these that really help me remember to do things for myself. 

# data[].attributes.body
Cindy M.

# data[].attributes.headline
I find that setting a routine or habits for myself makes me consistent in the path towards meeting my goals.  I have set for myself daily, five year and life goals.  Then under each I have listed career, bucket list, financial, family and personal.

# data[].attributes.subject
I find that setting a routine or habits for myself makes me consistent in the path towards meeting my goals.  I have set for myself daily, five year and life goals.  Then under each I have listed career, bucket list, financial, family and personal.

# data[].attributes.body
John F

# data[].attributes.body
The only way things work for me is to track things. I don't like journaling, but I have found an app for my smartphone called the Livestrong MyPlate app. I set daily goals based on my current weight and what I want to lose for the week. It tells me how many calories I have for the day and it has all foods you can think of on the app. When you eat something, you track it and it tells you how many calories you have left. If you work out, it adds those calories back. If you are goal focused and you do this religiously, this is a great way to get back on track.

To make this work, I need to hold myself accountable and keep using the app!
John F.

# data[].attributes.headline
My grandparents lived well into their 90's and I enjoyed and cherished the time I got with them as an adult so much. I learned so many life lessons from them and was lucky to have them always by my side as my cheerleaders. I want the same for my daughter, grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren. I want to see them grow and be there to support as many of their stages of life that my health will let me.

# data[].attributes.subject
My grandparents lived well into their 90's and I enjoyed and cherished the time I got with them as an adult so much. I learned so many life lessons from them and was lucky to have them always by my side as my cheerleaders. I want the same for my daughter, grandchildren and maybe even great grandchildren. I want to see them grow and be there to support as many of their stages of life that my health will let me.

# data[].attributes.headline
When I quit smoking as a young twenty-something in college, it was after Phillip-Morris made the news for litigation that resulted in the Tobacco Master Settlement. In my head, I turned my efforts into a one-person boycott of that company.

# data[].attributes.subject
When I quit smoking as a young twenty-something in college, it was after Phillip-Morris made the news for litigation that resulted in the Tobacco Master Settlement. In my head, I turned my efforts into a one-person boycott of that company.

# data[].attributes.body
Jessica F. (recused from prize)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the early 1990s, you could still find cigarettes in restaurants, vending machines and the mouths of all kinds of consumers. For adults and teenagers alike, one brand overshadowed all the others: Marlboro. The filtered cigarettes in their red-and-white packages had a cult following thanks in part to the Marlboro Man, an iconic cowboy character who lent macho cool to the brand, and for decades he'd led a seemingly unstoppable tobacco juggernaut to billions of dollars of profits.

So how did Marlboro end up on the receiving end of the most punishing stock market tumble of its time?

That's what happened on "Marlboro Friday." On April 2, 1993, the stock price of its parent company, Phillip Morris, dropped a whopping 26 percent, the largest price drop of any company to date. The dip seemed to come out of nowhere. It threatened to tank the entire U.S. stock market-and shook American confidence not just in one of its most famous brands, but in the idea of brands themselves.

Marlboros had long been the world's most popular cigarette. First sold in 1923, the cigarettes were initially marketed to women under the slogan "Mild as May." But after World War II, as cigarette brands like Lucky Strike and Camel reigned supreme, the brand underwent a masculine makeover. The brand relaunched in 1955-targeted to lifelong male smokers. Featuring a new red-and-white package and a manly cowboy known only as the Marlboro Man, the cigarettes became a sensation.

By 1993, they had been the world's bestselling cigarette for decades. So when the brand announced it would drop the cost of a pack by a whopping 40 cents, investors were shocked. Why would the world's best-selling cigarette slash prices so boldly?

The reason was competition, the brand explained: Discount brands and smokers who consumed fewer cigarettes had made a preemptive strike necessary. But the strike felt more like a bomb to analysts, especially when they learned that Marlboro would invest in even more advertising.

"It's not unlike a candidate who tries to win an election by attacking his or her opponent in a fiery speech in the morning and then pays for warm-and-fuzzy, mom-and-apple-pie commercials to appear that evening," wrote The New York Times ' Stuart Elliott. Market experts worried that the price cuts would undercut the brand's long-term viability, regardless of how powerful its cowboy imagery and iconic branding.

Stockholders apparently agreed: When they company announced that it would knock 40 cents off the price of a pack, investors fled. The stock price fell 23 percent, the largest one-day price drop of any brand in history at the time. News of Philip Morris's decline hit other stocks hard, too. Suddenly, investors were getting rid of stocks associated with other big name brands like Campbell's Soup, Nabisco, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 69.17 points.

The dustup-quickly dubbed "Marlboro Friday"-wasn't just frightening from a stock market perspective. The shocking decline of one of America's most beloved brands begged a scary question: What if the concept of branding itself was bogus?

"The 1980's ended on that day," consumer marketing researcher Watts Wacker told The New York Times a year later. Suddenly the brand loyalty that had seemed so important during a decade and a half ruled by name brands was on shaky ground. Spooked by a lengthy recession, American consumers had begun shopping at new big-box stores like Wal-Mart, bought more generic products, and were more cautious about opening their wallets.

But stingy consumers were just the tip of the iceberg for Phillip Morris. Like a slow-motion Titanic, the company was about to steer into a public relations disaster and a societal sea change. Since the 1950s, individuals had been suing individual tobacco companies for ill health effects, like cancer, caused by smoking. And in May 1994, a little more than a year after Marlboro Friday, Mississippi became the first state to sue tobacco companies.

It opened the floodgates: As more and more states sought compensation for the injuries caused by smoking, the depths of the tobacco industry's participation in decades-long lies were revealed. It turns out that companies like Phillip Morris knew about the ill effects of smoking and the addictive potential of nicotine as early as the 1950s, but that they had engaged in decades of deceptive marketing anyway.

As the health consequences of smoking became better publicized and the extent of the tobacco companies' collusion became better known during the 1990s, the golden age of American smoking ended. (And news that at least four of the actors who played the Marlboro Man had died of smoking-related illnesses didn't exactly help the brand, either.)

So did Marlboro Friday really spell the death of other American brands? Not exactly. "Companies realized that they no longer simply slap their logos on billboards and call it a day," writes The Motley Fool 's Morgan Housel. "That was mere advertising. Successful branding meant that companies had to integrate their products into consumers' lives-the brand needed to be an experience, a lifestyle, rather than just the face of a product."

As the 1990s went on, brands like Gap, Apple and Starbucks managed to worm their way into consumers' daily lives. And despite the blip, Marlboro-whose parent company, Phillip Morris, rebranded itself as Altria Group in the early 2000s in the face of rising political pressure on tobacco companies-is still considered to be the most successful stock of all time.

Marlboro Friday may have been the worst day a brand had ever suffered at the time, but the Marlboro Man brushed himself off and did just fine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Marlboro Friday: The Stock Market Shock That Nearly Tanked an Iconic Brand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the early 1990s, you could still find cigarettes in restaurants, vending machines and the mouths of all kinds of consumers. For adults and teenagers alike, one brand overshadowed all the others: Marlboro.