FROM A $500 GRANT TO 6,000 SMILES

I arrived at Ideas Fest with eight ideas, a festival trolley and a simple mission: Attract. Engage. Intrigue. Connect. One of those ideas was Bag a Smile. I had no idea just how far that little idea was about to travel.

During the festival, I found myself in Dreamland on the Dream Stage with John and Tom from Drop Dead Generous, talking about Bag a Smile and the simple idea behind it, giving someone a bag filled with something that would make them smile and make their day a little better. For someone sleeping rough, that could be food or warm socks. For someone feeling lonely, it could be a cake, a book or simply something that says “someone cares.”

Within minutes, the team and the audience were engaged with the idea. Then came the announcement. Drop Dead Generous awarded Bag a Smile a $500 grant to kick-start the project. I was completely gobsmacked and overwhelmed and broke down into tears. After years of fighting to get my ideas off the ground, someone had finally looked at one and said: “We believe in this.” It was emotional, really emotional. But standing on that stage, something else suddenly dawned on me. I looked out across the Ideas Fest field and realised that the audience Bag a Smile needed might already be standing right in front of me. Ideas Fest brings together around 6,000+ influential, connected and ambitious entrepreneurs, founders, creators and business leaders. 6,000 people with networks, 6,000 people who can open doors, 6,000 people who could help spread an idea. So, in true Rooney fashion, I made a rather ambitious promise. I'LL BE BACK AT IDEAS FEST 2027, and this time, I want to bring 6,000 Bag a Smile bags, one for every person attending. Because those 6,000 bags aren't just 6,000 bags, they could be the beginning of 6,000 new conversations about kindness. And if each of those 6,000 people takes Bag a Smile into their own network…who knows how far it could travel? 6,000 bags, 6,000 smiles, 6,000 opportunities to create a little more kindness.

And so now the journey truly begins and this is where you can help.
We have created a GOFUNDME page (link to follow) to help fund the 6000 bags. But I realise that their are other ways of helping us out.

FOUNDERS & BUSINESSES
Companies with CSR, community or social-impact budgets who could help fund production, sponsor a batch or buy bags for their employees and customers.

PRINTERS & MANUFACTURERS
Could you help us produce the bags at scale? Perhaps you can offer production, materials, sponsorship or simply help us find someone who can.

STORES, RETAILERS & SHOPPING CENTRES
Could you become a place where people can buy a Bag a Smile and take it away to fill and give?

EVENTS, VENUES & FESTIVALS
Keen to find similar audiences as Ideas Fest that we can engage and inspire to get involved with Bag A Smile

BRANDS
Do you have products, food, samples, surplus or deadstock that could go inside the bags? Something sitting in a warehouse could become something that makes someone's day.

TV, RADIO AND PRESS
Need a little feel good story to create some headlines, well here it is, the more people that know how to give someone a bag filled with something that would make them smile and make their day a little better, the better for everyone.

CHARITIES & COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS
Could Bag a Smile complement what you're already doing and help you reach the people and communities you support?

CELEBRITIES, CREATORS & PEOPLE WITH A PLATFORM
If you genuinely believe in the idea and have an audience who might want to help spread it, we'd love to talk.

So please if you think this is something that you would like to get involved with and help give a smile to those less fortunate then ourselves give me a call 07966 000871.