Make Civic Participation Civil and Sexy: A Behind-the-Scenes Update
This post first appeared in the Civic Sparks newsletter sent on December 28, 2025. I’m sharing it here on the blog to make it easier to revisit, reference, and build on — with a few added links and context.
Make Civic Participation Civil and Sexy.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I spent time with my family at a rented home at the Lake of the Ozarks — a place we’ve gathered for the past five years.
In support of my entrepreneurial and civic work, my family agreed to a photo shoot wearing Civic Roots merch.
I was able to use many of these photos to create new mockups, replacing a large portion of the stock model images on the CRM site. I’ve now removed all remaining stock model mockups and temporarily replaced them with flat images until more real-life models join in. This shift has already enhanced the overall look of the site and will also support SEO.
On some of the real-people mockups, I’ve added personal circle banners for family members who are civically engaged. I want this to become a celebrated theme across the site — a way to offer recognition, tell a story, and help normalize civic action by featuring real people participating in civic life.
My hope is to gradually replace all flat images with photos from real customers and wearers of Civic Roots merch, adding banners where applicable. If you’d like to participate, look below for a few simple tips on photo usability.
Flat images = open invitations — an open space for you to help bring Civic Roots to life.
“You could be here.”
One small but effective update I’m particularly excited about is a new movement feature in the site’s main header that rotates between two announcements. The first invites participation in product mockups — the same invitation I’m extending here. The second highlights that Civic Roots is much more than a merch shop, gently guiding visitors to scroll down and explore the Civic Roots Toolkit on the homepage.
Another update you’ll notice at the top of this newsletter is the refreshed Civic Sparks header, now featuring the new logo. I work in Canva for projects like this, and embedding it cleanly into Mailchimp took several focused sessions — but I think it adds a polished, professional touch to CRM correspondence.
Sharing this progress has me reflecting on how much this project has pushed me outside my comfort zone with technology and online platforms: Printful, Shopify, Canva, Mailchimp, GoDaddy — and yes, ChatGPT. While the use of AI is understandably controversial, I want to be transparent in saying it has been a game-changer for me. Without it, I simply wouldn’t have been able to navigate the many go-betweens required to bring all these tools together into what CRM is today.
My online connectedness is about to increase significantly. In the coming months, I’ll be adding social media accounts and showing up more publicly. The goal is to make Civic and Civil Renewal more visible, build connections, and help weave a broader web of support for civic participation that is both civil and sexy.
More reflections, resources, and new products are on the way.
Thank you for being here.
Happy Holidays,
Vendoni
PS
I’ll share links to the new social channels in an upcoming newsletter.
If You’d Like to Share a Photo…
If you’re comfortable doing so, I’d love to feature photos of real people wearing Civic Roots.
Nothing fancy is needed — phone photos are just fine.
A few gentle suggestions, if helpful:
- Natural light is great (near a window or outdoors)
- Simple backgrounds work well
- Solo or group photos are both welcome
- Smiles optional — authenticity encouraged
If that sounds fun, you can reply to this email with a photo. And if you’d like, I would truly love for you to include a brief comment about your civic engagement — especially if you’d like a Civic Participation Banner and/or a one- or two-sentence recognition in the product description.