A sweet story

“All you need is love.
But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
Charles M. Schulz

The mission: Provide a care package of holiday treats, greetings, and well wishes for the men and women serving aboard the USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH aircraft carrier in active duty somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea.

The care package is part of our recent 2022 holiday give-back event featuring a lifetime of leadership lessons from Capt. J.J. “Yank” Cummings, who is a fellow graduate of the same small liberal arts college as our CEO (Bates) and went on to become a Navy fighter pilot and commanding officer of the most technologically advanced vessel in the world, the nuclear-powered USS GERALD R. FORD, among other commands. A TOPGUN graduate, he was also technical adviser for the recent Top Gun: Maverick movie.

Moving into action are Emily De Frank, senior director of creative operations at Advantage, who learned we would be limited to 12x12x6″ boxes of up to 70 pounds each for priority mail, Advantage editor Julie Wolpers, who designed a 3×5-foot cloth poster (containing the greetings from pre-registered participants) that we could fold up and put inside, and Advantage President & CEO Jonathan Hodge, who is getting the poster printed locally in Salt Lake City and has called upon his next-door neighbors of 19 years, Bruce and Agnieszka (aka Agnes) Jones, to fulfill the order via their family-owned candy company AvenueSweets.

Agnes began making caramels in her kitchen as gifts for friends and neighbors, who persistently urged her to start a business. She did just that in 2005 when her children reached elementary school. Within the first year, her amazing almond nougat found its way into Martha Stewart Living magazine and her caramels into the gift bags at the International Emmy Awards. Husband Bruce, a former deejay, joined the team as Chief Encouragement Officer. More about their sweet story here.

If you missed our event, you can listen to (and watch) J.J.’s many great stories here, including one that shocked the Navy to its core and shaped J.J.’s personal leadership strategy from that moment on.

One great thing for 12.06.22 – Tips from Santa on being a Multiplier (reprise)