[Words from the Admin]

With the concerts over now, I’m having time to reflect on the weekend. My personal trip only allowed me to attend Dallas, but I was involved in a large part of the planning for both LA & Dallas – between the keychain donations & banner/colored paper design. A lot of this was a joint effort between a few core members of our staff. There were so many projects that I was proud to see be completed. And I wanted to talk about the project experience from my side so Shawols can know what our experience was like.

★ Fundraising ★

We were able to raise half of the money that contributed to the banners thanks to the fundraising we, SHINee USA, did with these keychains & stickers and the other half was raised by @SHINeeUSFanmeet‘s photocards~! To everyone who contributed, we want to extend our sincerest “thank you”! Without your help, these projects would not have been possible~! Please enjoy the keychain & stickers as memorabilia and a token of our appreciation! ^^

★ Backstage Flowers ★

For our Dallas Flower Letter, I really made sure we understood the meaning of every Korean word used in our letter. So it meant a lot to me when the boys thanked us for learning Korean for them. I really did start learning Korean for them! And when I wrote the flower card, half of it was in Korean & half was in English. I’m sure they could tell that the writer wasn’t native Korean, but I tried really hard! “To SHINee, our 5 men who shine more beautifully than flowers…” For the Dallas card exterior, I included our keychain in a cut out window because I wanted them to have a piece of our project. That keychain alone raised over half of the funds we needed for these projects (banner, colored paper & flowers). The envelope was custom made out of the paper we used for our colored paper heart project. And that in turn inspired our other project admin to use the LA colored paper for the LA flower card envelope!

For Dallas’s flower arrangement, we chose specifically 5 roses of one color with blue flowers (hydrangeas) and for LA we wanted more flowers that were native to North America (like sunflowers). Next time we’ll make them even more grand!

★ Banner Project: Dallas – “For you, our hands become a green ocean – So Amazing~!”★

In Dallas, we passed out message banners all day and then set up the colored paper heart on the floor with a team of volunteers when the doors opened at 6pm & 6:30pm. Unfortunately the final ment from SHINee happened before the final song – where the banner & heart project were planned to be. So our project wasn’t included in the group photo. I’m sorry we don’t have more photos of the project during “An Encore (재연)” but our admins weren’t in a good seat for the project (dead center of the heart and the project). It’s hard to predict the setlist in advance and get the banners printed with the correct instructions T^T We’ll plan it more loosely next time so we don’t miss out on the photo op again~!

Hopefully more & better photos will surface, but if they don’t – I can tell you the project definitely was definitely a success in ours and SHINee’s hearts even if we don’t have many photos. During the test before the concert, about 75% of the people seated held up the banners for us (I don’t think everyone was seated yet and not everyone heard our volunteers’ instructions) and what I saw looked so good that I teared up. I had to hold myself back from crying because I worried for so long that it wouldn’t work – I really only have my volunteers to thank for this project! The heart in Dallas had to be designed on site (with less than an hour) when the doors opened because the venue would not give us a seating chart nor let us in early to set up. We did our best! I’m not sure if SHINee saw the heart due to the stage lighting during “An Encore (재연)” but I could see Minho squinting trying to make it out. >< So I know he saw part of it! Honestly speaking, for both LA & Dallas, you really can’t see these projects well unless you’re on/near the stage which is why we had trouble finding fan photos/videos.

During the designing phase of the banners I reached out to a friend of mine who helped translate and double check the meaning of the Korean – because we changed Onew’s original lyrics for “So Amazing” to be from the fans’ perspective. We chose informal language so SHINee could feel like there was no space between us and we were no different from the fans they already knew in Korea. I wanted to convey that closeness so they could feel at home with us even when they were in a completely different country with a language barrier. “For you, our (Shawols’) hands become a green ocean – So Amazing~!”

For the banner slogans, we really looked at the suggestions everyone gave and tried to pick out our favorites. From there, we added a little extra to make them more meaningful. We had over 70 suggestions~! ^^ It’s a shame that “So Amazing” was removed from the setlist – we were certain that one would be safe from cuts but we were wrong and the banners had already been printed by the time SHINee performed in Toronto so we couldn’t make changes to the instructions. I was told at the venue by another fan that Toronto’s banner was also meant to be held during “So Amazing”. So after we knew it had been cut, the best moment to put the banner project at that point was during the final ballad – which is what Toronto did as well. Thinking back, we knew SubK would not be able to tell us what songs were on the setlist, but if there’s a next time, we’ll do our best to get them more involved to make this project perfect next time~!

★ Banner Project: LA – “Forever My 1 of 1” ★

For LA, we had a perfect storm of circumstances – “1 of 1” came 2 songs before the final comments/photo op and we were able to find a seating chart online of the Shrine Auditorium for planning. So we got really lucky that our double banner project fit into the show (even though the timing of the final “Thank you/Birthday” banner was cut off due to no comments after the final song). We were also lucky that the hour (or less) between the theater opening & the show starting was enough to set up with our volunteers in LA. I’m so grateful that turned out as well as it did. Once again, I only have volunteers & new admins to thank for making this project come alive.

“Thank you – Happy Early Birthday Petite Jonghyun!”

Our goal with these extra projects was always to show the closeness and love that US Shawols feel for SHINee. And I’m really glad that we were able to achieve that. ^^ I think it’s all so endearing how hard we tried (SHINee & Shawols) to reach out to each other. I wouldn’t trade that for the world! I hope that we’ll only continue to grow to love each other more. Maybe next time we’ll be closer to perfection! ^^ Thank you always for your support SHINee World! We will always strive to do better & be better! I hope you loved the projects as much as we did~! ^^

~SHINee USA Main Admin