Good morning fellow EXer's! I hope today is a good one for all!
On the eve of my one year quit celebration 12/31/10, in a blog, I vowed to drive the train to Freedom the following year! In January of 2011 the Freedom Train became a daily blog in which I named the people I knew who were celebrating milestones on that day! 50 days,100 days and multiples, and one year and multiples! The Train would go to their hometown and "pick them up"! All of their friends and fellow EXer's would then come aboard the Train with well wishes, and food and music, to help celebrate their milestones.
After about 6 months the task of tracking everyones quit dates(with pen and paper) became more than I could keep up! Our dear Maggie steped up to help me! We quickly recruited LindaN and Marcie and soon others! Some software was now involved! The Freedom Train became(I believe) the most recognized icon of this site! People looked forward to the daily celebration of Freedom from the evils of tobacco! 100's of people joined us on our daily journey to Freedom! And no one wanted to miss their own celebration!
A number of people came to help, with the best of intentions! Cyn is still with us! The time commitment was too much for some, and others found that it was not something they really wanted to do! And that is fine! I appreciate everyones efforts! The Train continued to grow and we were tracking thousands of quit dates! It just became too much for any group to keep up with! So, we changed the format! Now, we ask everyone to come aboard and announce their own milestones, and those of their friends! And, ridership has dwindled!!
So, today I come to you to ask you if the Freedom Train should continue to ride the rails to Freedom! Each and everyday a dedicated group of people post the Freedom Train, and it still makes it daily run to Freedom! But,I see seperate blogs celebrating peoples milestones! And they are good! These celebrations once happened on the Freedom Train! My question to you is whether the Freedom Train is still wanted and needed! Is it still relevant! Please respond to this blog! Let me know your true feelings! Is the Train still helping anyone! Or should we retire it, and let our dedicated conductors go!
Thank you all for your input!! Tommy
