Carmen Sandiego Day

The exact description of a day varies with the event. In the very first Carmen Sandiego Day, students went on a linguistic, artistic, musical, and geographical tour through locations where Carmen's crooks hid, on the way learning about culture via their favourite sports and chosen cuisines.^[2] The first annual Carmen Sandiego Day in Charlotte took place on February 15, 1993, and all 4–6th graders in public, private and parochial schools were asked to participate in the event.^[11] Carmen Sandiego Day was recommended as a way to get educators, students and community members to turn into technology users and supporters.^[12][13][14] In a 1992 event, children explained the computer program to their parents, brought food from different parts of the world, had homerooms compete in the Math Super Bowl competition, and a Media Center containing a Carmen theater, art exhibits, Spanish exhibits, gifted-talented exhibits and hobbies-sports-careers exhibits.^[15]

To help 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.^[2] They also created a four-week planning guide that led up to the actual events.^[16] In some cases, Broderbund even sent an actress dressed up as Carmen Sandiego by helicopter herself to schools who called in advance.^[16] A system was implemented whereby students could call into the fictional Acme Detective Agency (actual Broderbund headquarters) and talk to the Chief (played by franchise creators Gene Portwood or Lauren Elliott).^[1] While they originally gave away the kits for free, due to the success of the program they began charging $10 for shipping and handling.^[17][18] 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.^[12][13][14] 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.^[17] The latter two, plus Carmen Day sequels, were published by Broderbund due to the "overwhelming demand".^[1]

The Carmen Sandiego kit was distributed to over 7000 schools across the United States, and the project was covered in Time magazine.^[19] Jon Bennet, who had organised the first Carmen Sandiego Day, received the Quality Recognition Award for technology innovation at a State Board of Education meeting for his Carmen Sandiego Day concept.^[19] In 2001, Lauren Elliott would retroactively assess that "[Carmen Days] were a kick ... and successful".^[1]

Beverly Cunningham, SAGE teacher at Mountain Valley Elementary, commented: "Carmen Sandiego Day is an excellent example of how computer programs can be used innovatively to enrich traditional subjects and increase student involvement and motivation".^[4] A November 1991 issue of Amiga News noted that the Carmen Sandiego franchise had "achieved great success" in schools thanks to the establishment of this ongoing event.^[20][21] Commodore Magazine wrote that the Carmen Day packs were "worth it".^[17]

The success of Carmen Days led to schools from many states asking Broderbund to make state-specific versions of their games to appeal to the state and fit into their Carmen Days. Broderbund only attempted this once, with the prototype Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego?; the game sold around 5,000 copies but its popularity was contained with North Dakota.^[1]