Top 10 List: Why Kickstarter Loves Potato Salad But Not Military Kids

Social media is not like ebola.  Even Alex from Target cannot predict what goes viral.  High fives to Zach Brown and his quirky potato salad campaign that raised $55,492 on Kickstarter in August 2014 for a $10 pitch make potato salad. 
 
Staff at the 6 Million Kids Campaign are still wondering why Kickstarter did not give their project the opportunity to go viral on Kickstarter.  “I feel like 6 million military and veteran kids deserve to know why Kickstarter rejected them,” says author and nationally known military transition expert Gretchen Martens (@TheVeteranLady).  “Fortunately, GoFundMe has a more open mind.”
 
After getting over the initial shock of being rejected days before the campaign launch on Veterans Day, Ms. Martens began to get angry at how military kids were being overlooked.  “Here’s Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter co-founder, telling everyone he wants passionate people connected with Kickstarter and signing his Tumblr page ‘love Yancey.’  But he won’t show any love to America’s military kids.”
 
Venting with family and friends over the holidays, anger gave way to humor and Ms. Martens improv theater training took over.  She created to Top 10 List of Why Kickstarter Loves Potato Salad But Not Military Kids and a hashtag where others can contribute on Twitter (#SpudsOrKids):
 
10. Making potato salad only costs about $10; raising a kid costs more than $300K.
9. Potato salad is predictable, kids are not.
8. A potato salad party is fun but a kid’s party usually involves someone wetting their pants or barfing.
7. Potato salad will never tell grandma her meatloaf is yucky.
6. If you don’t like potato salad, you can throw it away.  Try it with a kid and you wind up in jail.
5. Potato salad will sit quietly in your fridge all night long.  No guarantees with kids.
4. There are recipes for perfect potato salad.  Perfect kids don’t exist.
3. A great potato salad may get you on Top Chef.  A great kid never will.
2. Potato salad never wants to borrow the car or increases your insurance rates.
1. Potato salad: an hour of work, 15 minutes of bliss.  Kids: 15 minutes of bliss, 18 years of work.
 
“We would love to be on Letterman,” says Ms. Martens.  “It’s a lot to hope for, but not too much to ask on behalf of 6 million military kids.”  You can find the campaign live on GoFundMe as well as the campaign website of the same name.

Contact Information

Gretchen Martens

CEO

Vet City USA LLC

(1) 1-855-838-5239

Media@VetCityUSA.com