Congratulations to the following people for completing two of our three triathlon events: Cristine, Kate, Robin, Karlie, Misty, Jennifer, and Peggy.  Check out the slide show at the bottom of today's post to see their Heartstring creations.  Not only will one of these lucky participants be awarded $100.00, but two others will receive cash prizes and all seven of them will earn Tri-It 2010 t-shirts.

A quick recap will bring you up to speed if you are tuning in for the first time in a couple of days.  The House of Shine is hosting a three-day, three-event Triathlon.  We seek to hone skills required for shining in the same way that United States Triathlon Association seeks to hone athletic skills.  While they are busy flexing muscles and building brawn, we are busy cultivating creativity and promoting passion.

Today is the final leg of our race.

The first day we challenged your hands.  The second day we probed your heart.  And, today - day three - we call on the use of your head. 

A word or two to set the stage for today's event.

You would respect me less if I droned on about the Yellow Envelope Project - the thing that tugs at my heartstrings - and then didn't do every single thing I could to assure the program's success.  My commitment to the Project would seem luke warm and, therefore, it wouldn't take long before your feelings about the Project followed suit and became luke warm.

We can't have that.  There is a planet out there waiting to be powered by shine and our Yellow Envelope Project is part of the solution.

Powering the planet with shine depends on our ability to successfully connect with everyday citizens who are brightening their corners of the world.  If we can find these unusually talented, committed, hardworking, people then we can thank them.  And, if we can thank them, then we can motivate them to keep on going.  Ten minutes and $0.44 can spark pockets of energy around the globe.

But, only if the letters are being delivered to the world's brightest shining stars.  Finding the world's brightest stars can seem daunting, so we'll start at the beginning.  We will start in our own backyard - the U.S. - and we will begin with the letter, "A." 

Here's today's event:

Using your head, figure out how to find at least one person who shines from a state beginning with the letter "A."  Be resourceful.  Use your social network, relatives, acquaintances from other on-line communities, the on-line Yellow pages, associations with which you have membership, or anything else you can come up with.

This activity should mean mobilizing someone to work on your behalf.  In other words, it should require you to connect with someone who knows someone who shines.  After all, if you knew some directly who shined in a state beginning with the letter "A" then surely, by now, you would already have nominated him or her.  Surely.  

Once you find someone who knows someone who shines in a state beginning with the letter "A," then you must have them do the following:

• Click here to get directly to the Yellow Envelope Nomination Form or have your partner visit www.yellowenvelopeproject.com.  The nomination form can be found in paragraph two where it says, "Click here."

• Complete the entire form, including shirt size and an address for the nominee.  Forms that are not filled out completely will be eliminated.

• Include your name in the space labeled, "Nominator's Name."  For example, if I was submitting a name in order to help Ray Wattson complete today's Triathlon event (over my dead body, by the way) then I would type: "Claudia Beeny for Ray Wattson."

Nominations must be received by 10:00 pm CST.  Participants will each receive one point for successfully getting a Yellow Envelope Nomination submitted.  An additional point will be assigned to the person who solicits the most compelling nomination (as determined by my guest judge).

Today's explanation is long and the directions are more complicated than Tuesday's or Wednesday's.  Then again, today's experience is meant to leave you scratching your head.  Don't share your secret strategy, but how about visiting us in the Community Forum labeled today's post and tell us which state beginning with the letter, "A" you plan to target.

Shining off until tomorrow when we announce the winners of our three cash prizes.