Awesome Yelp Event

Good news! The Yelp Boston Red Carpet Gallery Gala was held last night at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and we received $3,600 in donations! How cool is that? Leighann, the Yelp Boston director had contacted me last month about the event and wanted Project Smile to be the charity that guests are asked to donate to. The event was free and people got to sample lots of different food and drinks from a lot of different restaurants and they received a gift bag and toured the museum, so it was a terrific event. There were a bunch of volunteers that did a great job- we collected donations at the check-in table and we had a table near the photo booth as well. I had no idea that we would raise that amount of money. It was especially awesome since all we had to do was show up at the event- there were no expenses, no marketing pressure- nothing but organizing some volunteers, preparing donation jars, setting up our table and greeting guests and nicely asking them to donate. I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am our this donation. Money has been dwindling in our account, yesterday afternoon, I deposited a small check and had such a sinking feeling when I looked at our balance. I already knew approximately how much was in the account, but when you see the balance written out- it is jarring. The size of this donation was unexpected and I am so appreciative of Leighann for selecting Project Smile and for everyone who donated last night.

So what else is happening? More good news- Axe is on board to donate product for our date auction gift bags. We have 700 bottles of Axe shampoo and 350 mini bottles of hair product arriving soon. That is a really cool gift bag item and a perfect fit for our audience. I'm really happy with the donations we have for the gift bags- Axe, Green Mountain Coffee, Sofft Shoes, Fuze Beverage, Salon Capri, BodyScapes, California Closets- all really good stuff. Cholive, a really cool chocolate company that provides truffles and chocolates for cocktails is going to be donating small boxes of truffles for the bags too. We also will have two working microphones for the date auction which makes it easier for the hosts and they can also banter a bit. I've ordered a bigger stage as well which increases visibility for the guests. We're getting a 15% discount on rental items- I was hoping for more, but at least it is something.

I've submitted our event for listing on different publications, I still have more to do. We've sold some tickets so far, I think it is more than we had sold this time last year, but it is only a few. That always makes me nervous, but I know that I shouldn't worry. The event is 4 weeks away- which is nothing when you're planning an event, but for ticket sales, it is still a long way to go. I have more event marketing to work on tomorrow and I need to work on gift certificates for the couples. Maureen, one of the ladies being auctioned, has been so incredibly helpful- she got us 3 awesome gift certificates for couples to use on their date. We are still really short though. Especially since once sponsor who said they would donate just told me that they probably won't be able to- very disappointing since I was counting on their donation.

Well, that's it for tonight. I keep getting so nervous about our events, but I need to relax and just keep working like I do and believe that things will be fine. They were fine last year and I'm doing all the same things- even more things- so that should translate into things being fine this year. I still worry like crazy though- perhaps that should have been my middle name- Catherine Worry instead of Catherine Valentina. Until tomorrow friends..