THE STORY BEHIND THE HANDPRINTS

In Pensacola, McGuire’s Irish Pub restaurant is a famous icon and is known not only for great food but for the over 1 million signed dollar bills hanging from the wall and ceiling. The first dollar was tacked to the ceiling for good luck, and a fantastic tradition began. So, about 20 years ago, we were only a few years into our new building and, on a whim, I had my staff and my kids do their handprint on a wall in our staff lounge just for fun. Since then, we’ve encouraged our patients to “sign” a Wall of Fame when they got their braces off. Instead of just a signature, they would place their handprint and signature along with the date of their “big day”. And that was the birth of our brand (borrowed from McGuire’s dollar bill idea!). Well, little did we predict that 20+ years later, it was exactly what we were looking for! Handprints are everywhere in the office. Most every wall and some low ceilings, even outside on the porch has become necessary because we were running out of walls and never wanted to paint over someone’s big day event.