Latest and Greatest

So what's the latest? Nothing! Well, that's not true. Things are moving along steadily- although, the days seem to move very quickly and I don't get everything done- that is hardly anything new. I had quite a few things that I was going to get done tonight, I did a couple, but didn't get to grant writing or doing our newsletter. Grant writing requires a lot of energy and I'm too tired tonight to work on it. I just submitted our website scrolling updates about a half hour ago and I already got an automated email from the web host letting me know that the updates had been done. That was an amazingly fast turn around. They usually do things promptly, but never within a half hour. It is so important to keep websites updated. There really is little worse than looking at sites that have outdated info on it, it looks so unprofessional. There are some other changes that I'd like to do on our site, but I make it a priority to keep the info and photos as fresh as possible.

I had a meeting with Copley Place on Monday for the fashion show fundraiser that we're doing on April 19 with the Smiling Stiletto Shoe Club that I run. The meeting went well- things are looking good for the event.  The DJ who did our fall event just signed on to perform at our spring show, so that is one more thing taken care of.

In other news- I narrowed down the image for our Anniversary Celebration to two choices- one is very similar to last year's image (a single birthday teddy bear) and the other one has 4 small bears in a row each holding a white sign that spells out: Happy 9th Anniversary Project Smile. It took me a very long time to select two images- there are about a million Istock images with teddy bears, but very few that fit into our event. I think that I'm going to go with the 4 bears image. The other one is brighter and a great image, but it is too close to last year's look- I need to mix things up and keep it fresh. I'm going to talk with Lisa and see if she can play with the colors a bit more and brighten this image a little. It may sound trivial to spend so much time on an image, but these little details are so important. You have to send the right message with the image and you want something that is going to help get people in the door. I love the new image for the date auction- so glad that is all set. You can go on our events page now and check it out- the details for this year's event are already up, along with the new sponsor packet- www.projectsmile.org/events.htm

Tomorrow, I'm meeting with Nancy at California Closets- they host our Smiling Stiletto ladies night and opportunity drawing to benefit Project Smile. They donated a $2,500 gift certificate last year which was so generous. I'm working on getting more vendors involved for that event so we can bring in even more. It is the month after the fashion show, so we will be riding the good buzz from that event which should help increase attendance at this event even more.

Here is a photo from our donation last week to Boston PD- we donated over 300 stuffed animals, books and coloring books/crayons. Boston is a very large department, so we now donate to them every other month. Yesterday, I did another donation to the Dept. of Children and Families- I have a photo from that donation that I'll add soon. There are so many other departments that I need to follow up. I wish that I had an intern that could help with that- it really would make a difference.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I'm off to eat my grapefruit- I stocked up at Market Basket today. I don't know how much longer the grapefruit season lasts- I feel like it's coming to an end soon and then I'll have to switch to munching on crackers and cheese (just kidding- trying to keep it healthy and avoid late night eating unless it's fruit). Until tomorrow friends...