Carmen Sandiego Day
Carmen Sandiego Days (also known as Carmen Days) have been popular across United States schools since they were first held in 1988. Inspired by the Carmen Sandiego franchise, these days see schools hold week-long Carmen Sandiego-themed events, aided by packs and prizes originally provided by Broderbund, and later by the franchises' subsequent owners after The Learning Company's acquisition of Broderbund in 1998.
When Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was released in 1985, it wasn't an immediate success. It largely found its feet thanks to Apple's Apple Unified School System and Apple’s Education Purchase Program, which guaranteed a " nationwide computer-in-the-classroom infrastructure" that had an unprecedented and surreptitious side effect for Carmen Sandiego. Cathy Carlston and Janese Swanson, members of Brøderbund’s Educational Task Force, leveraged this by creating "Carmen Days", in which teachers and students would dress up as characters from the series, and play Carmen Sandiego video games.
March 4, 1988 saw the very first Carmen Sandiego Day take place in Bluffton, Indiana; it was organised by Jon Bennett of Eastside Elementary School. Broderbund helped out with the event by providing Carmen Sandiego content and a plan to follow. Other schools began holding the days, and Broderbund set up a streamlined system for them to purchase the kit. SAGE students held a Carmen Sandiego Day on November 16, 1990 Valen Maylard created an idea packet for the day entitled "Carmen Sandiego Is in Your Classroom", which incorporated the Carmen Day Kit into the proceedings as supplementary material. An event was held at Winding Creek on April 10, 2002.
The exact description of a day varies with the event. In the very first Carmen Sandiego Day, students went on a tour through a linguistic, artistic, musical, and geographical journey via the locations where Carmen's crooks hid, their favourite sports, and their chosen cuisines. The first annual Carmen Sandiego Day in Charlotte took place on February 15, 1993, and all 4–6th gradeers in public, private and parochial schools were asked to participate in the event. Carmen Sandiego Day was recommended as a way to get educators, students and community members to turn into technology users and supporters.
To held with the events, Broderbund traditionally contributes in various ways. They published sample news releases and a radio script, as well as participation certificates for the students. They also created a four-week planning guide that led up to the actual events. In some cases, Broderbund even sent an actress dressed up as Carmen Sandiego by helicopter herself to schools who called in advance. A system was implemented whereby students could call into the fictional Acme Detective Agency (actual Brøderbund headquarters) and talk to the Chief (played by franchise creators Gene Portwood or Lauren Elliott). While they originally gave away the kits for free, due to the success of the program they began charging $10 for shipping and handling. Broderbund added a contest element to the days as Broderbund would provide a pack with shirts, folders, contest suggestions, stickers, and prizes; this became a favourable component for schools. The kit was made available alongside the other two educational support packages, released due to the "overwhelming acceptance" of the series: School editions and Lab Pack editions. The latter two, plus Carmen Day sequels, were published by Broderbund due to the "overwhelming demand".
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