Like everyone, we’ve celebrated many birthdays during the pandemic.  Some with yummy home cooked masterpieces or a favorite takeout treat; others with car drive bys or s’mores in the backyard.  We’ve put together some fun, themed videos for our high school friends, compiled photo montages, and participated in group zooms with loved ones.  But this year, my mom turned 75, so we wanted to be sure her birthday was extra special despite us kids living too far away to visit.

We decided to surprise her with a Tribute video!  Rather than a homemade version compiled by my teenager, we decided to streamline and professionalize the process by registering with the online video making company, Tribute.  The process was actually quite simple.  You need a picture of the special person, a few sentences about what the special occasion is, and e-mail addresses for the people you would like to contribute videos.  Tribute will send out messages to everyone asking them to submit their videos at predetermined points – when you initially set up the page, at the mid-way point, the day before the deadline, on the deadline, and the day after the deadline.  Tribute also provides a direct link you can copy and send via text or personal e-mail. 

We set up our Tribute page in early September with an October 15th deadline.  Tribute provides tips and suggestions for creating meaningful videos.  We chose to ask contributors to focus on favorite memories, something they learned from our mother, or a simple birthday message.  We did not want people to feel intimidated in any way and were aiming for as broad participation as possible.

Tribute has a free option where they simply serve as a homebase for video uploads and provide you with the link for editing and rearranging videos.  For $100, they have a concierge service where they edit the videos, including adding intro and concluding slides and music.  We had so many contributions, we used the concierge service.  Tribute’s customer service was incredibly responsive.  We had some stragglers, so the Tribute team worked with us to get the late submissions included.  Tribute also provides optional products at additional cost.  We chose a 7 inch card that automatically plays the video when opened because we could envision our mother displaying the card in her living room as an everyday reminder of all who love her.

In the end, we were able to give our mother a high-definition, high-quality video nearly an hour long with heartfelt messages from family and friends throughout her life.  Some people didn’t feel comfortable contributing videos, but showered her with love through beautiful cards, letters, e-mails, and phone calls prompted by the message we sent out via Tribute.

To say she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love is an understatement.  She has watched the video numerous times already because it is so rich with memories and sentiments, it is impossible to absorb everything at once.  She says she catches something new each time she watches it and finds it so interesting to see what different people remember.  Luckily, the final video link provides controls so you can skip through certain videos to focus on new ones each time. She says she is just glowing!

In addition to having all of these messages preserved in perpetuity, there were several additional benefits to creating the video.  One, my mother is connecting with loved ones, some she has not spoken with in quite a while, as she reaches out to thank them for their contributions.  Two, she is planning her own video response.  During a pandemic, it is always nice to have something positive on which to focus one’s energy.  Most important, this project was a gift to everyone involved because it gave us all a chance to reminisce, reflect, and pay tribute to someone we all love.

Tips:

1.       Have Tribute send messages to people you would like to contribute, but follow-up with personal e-mails yourself as well.

2.       Allow people to send videos directly to you and offer to upload for them to maximize the number of people who will contribute.

3.       Set the due date well in advance of when you would like to present the video because people will submit their videos at the last minute.

4.       Use Photos!  Photos were a last minute thought for us, but they actually are a great addition to the videos.

5.       Plan on time for rearranging videos.  Although we were using the concierge service, we still spent lots of time rearranging the order of videos because we knew the contributors and knew which order we wanted the videos to appear.

6.       The final video link allows you to download the video to your computer for safekeeping.