Inspiration

The Thanks Great Lakes experiment was inspired by multiple sources over many years. Its name derives from the Thank You Ocean campaign created in 2006 by the state of California and NOAA, an initiative that spawned the Thank You Delaware Bay campaign several years later. 

Another influence was the Great Lakes Futures Project, which analyzed possible scenarios for the lakes' future. Among their recommendations, U.S. and Canadian researchers recognized a need to “nurture a Great Lakes citizenship or identity” among basin residents.

Inspiration also came from John Russonello, whose polling firm has conducted numerous surveys of Great Lakes residents. Russonello found that the “sense of pride and responsibility that residents feel about the lakes is heightened when they gain a sense of the Great Lakes as "a national treasure and an essential system for life in the region — rather than simply bodies of water.”