It’s Been Quite the Year!!

Well it has been quite the year for Zippy! The last number of weeks have been a bit of a whirl-wind, what with returning from six weeks in Asia and then trying to re-adjust to EST and a different work schedule! Zippy has been busy and barely had time to catch a breath upon arrival home and diving into full clinic work mode! But we wanted to take a moment to sort of conclude this blog on a really high note!

Zippy started thinking about this adventure back in, I think June of 2018, at the WTA tournament in San Jose California. I was asked to once again provide a short presentation to a group of young female tennis players at the World Championships in Singapore. These girls were selected by their country’s tennis federation to attend what is called the ‘Future Stars’ program. They come together to learn about team work, communication, fair-play, fun in sports and to learn from some of the best tennis players and coaches in the world. They compete in a round-robin tournament based on age groups and the semi-finals and finals were played on the championships center court. It is a great honor and thrill for these girls.

I was pondering what I might do different this year from last. I was working with a player and we were using Zippy to work through some plantar fasciitis issues. She commented that she really liked the tool. It is one thing to talk massage but if you have a fun and effective tool to use it is even better. As I looked at Zippy I thought “wonder if this company would donate?” Only thing to do was ask.

Well the rest is history as they say. I contacted these folks with my request and within the hour they responded with “How many do you need? Which handle forms? When do you need them?” Then as an after-thought “can we promote ourselves?”. The promotion proved more difficult than I had anticipated because of the big name sponsors of the World Championships. Bottom line is Jim emailed me after numerous emails back and forth with the ‘powers that be’. “Lee if this is too difficult we don’t need to worry about promotion. We are just grateful that these tools get into the hands of young athletes”. This certainly warmed my heart!

There is so much negativity in the world today it can be overwhelming. People bickering, complaining and being just plain unfriendly and out solely for themselves. It is a real pleasure to meet people that are friendly, down to earth, willing to lend a hand when asked and not so worried about getting anything back in return, (what I think is really how most people are). Well although I have yet to meet face to face I believe that Stevie and Jim of ZippyRBT are two such people. In our correspondence over the months when you read between the lines you find folks that enjoy what they are doing and love sharing their good fortunes with others. It’s not all about making big money (although nothing wrong with making some money!) It’s about leaving your mark in a good way in sometime unexpected places.

These weeks on the road with Zippy have left their mark. Not only were they a nice little surprise for the kids but everywhere Zippy went people smiled. Whether it was the airline pilot that gave Zip wings, the bird park attendant that saved Zip when it fell into the bird cage or the people that took Zip to places with them like the Great Wall of China so we could say “the Zip was there”! Zippy made people smile and if they had the good fortune of having some Zippy work done on them it not only made them smile but I think they purred a bit!

So I started this blog as a thank you for the generosity of their donation. But I believe I got a great deal more out of it than they did! Just by being there Zippy sparked conversations, kicked off the laughter, relieved some of the tension of working in a high energy sometimes high stress environment. Everyone wanted to be sure we had good pictures of Zippy.

Granted I use this tool in my massage practice both at home and on the WTA Tennis Tour. The reason, its good and its fun and it helps save my hands. Clients love it; it makes a great thank you gift for regular clients or for other giveaways. So if I were you I’d order a bunch now!

In closing I am adding the final pictures of Zippy out and about in Singapore and then home here working in NC. I truly want to say thank you to Stevie and Jim for their creativeness in designing this tool, their courage for making and marketing it and their generosity for sharing it with the Future Stars program and making my tour through Asia very, very, very fun. I hope to have that face to face meeting with them someday, maybe in North Carolina where I believe they sometimes visit!

Thanks Stevie and Jim. And thanks to all that have stopped by to read this blog over these weeks. NC Zippy and I wish you health and peace during this holiday season and throughout the coming 2019. Let’s all work to make this a friendly place to live, work and play by doing our little part toward that goal.

Signing off from Henderson North Carolina:

Lee Stang and Zippy

Zippy arrives in Singapore to special things in our room!