2008 Year in Review

I know the year isn't over yet, but I was thinking this weekend about what a year it has been for us. There have been a lot of good things and of course some not so good things, but the good has definitely outweighed the negative. So here's a look at the highlights and lowlights- in no particular order:

Highlights:
Expanding to work with the Department of Children & Families
Success of the 2nd Annual Date Auction
5th Anniversary Celebration success
Decorating for the Halloween/Child Safety event and the event itself being a success and running smoothly.
The great people that I've met this year on Meet Up and other places
Doing the calendar photos- it is always so much fun
Getting the 100 auction items
The Boston Bruins Foundation grant
TJX Foundation grant
Operation Elder Care program
Our donation to Goodwill for the childrens holiday party
The 2009 calendar- it looks great
Our new webhost- he does an awesome job with our website
My blog
My book of lists- this may sound stupid, but it keeps me on track during the day
The volunteers who are so reliable
The event in April that Jennifer ran for us
Having Gail Huff and JC Monahan attend our event
Working with Boston FF Assoc. to get single FF for our date auction
Donation at Newton City Hall
Now working with 143 police/fire departments


Lowlights
Economic crisis, particularly for what it will bring next year
The many flaky people that I meet
The Worcester sports team that committed to sponsoring our Halloween event and having their mascot attend the Halloween event, then disappeared- never returned phone calls or emails to this day
Calendar sales
The legal issue that surfaced before the date auction
The difficulty in getting sponsors for the date auction and Halloween event- particularly date auction
All the worry about whether people would show up to our events
The end-of-the-year donations that we haven't received
Pressure of not having the resources to hire staff so that we can expand the way we need to
The constant follow up phone calls/emails that I need to make to get results
Getting the calendar ads sold
People who auction items but never give them

No-Lights
Haven't decided if this will fall into the highlight or the lowlight section- right now it is in the neutral section- our valentines event. I'm getting a little worried, but I still think it has the potential to be a highlight

I know there are things that I'm forgetting from this year, so I will add on during the week as the memories come flying back..

Not a whole heck of a lot new today- I was plugging along on calendar sales and outreach, but I had to skip out to an unexpected appointment which cut into work time today. Tomorrow, I'm off to Worcester to drop off the toys and other items for the elementary school party, then back to work on calendars and reaching more departments. I also have to work on next year's fundraising plan. It is almost 1:30- I did my cardio exercise at 11pm- I didn't exercise this morning b/c I was running late and I'm not feeling very healthy, so I made sure to exercise tonight. I'm still struggling with bed early- I don't know how to fix this. It wouldn't be a problem, except that I feel like I get too late a start in the morning. Anyways friends, I'm yawning, eyes are getting blurry, hair is almost dry after my shower- so now I need to write my list and sleep. Until tomorrow...



6 years ago today you were here. 6 years ago tomorrow, you were gone. I miss the person that I wish you were. If I could tell you one thing, I'd tell you that the world is beautiful and I wish you could have known that. I know there is a lot of ugliness and so much that is wrong, so much that is horribly unfair and so much pain, but there is more wonderment, more love and more beauty. I wish you could have found your peace.