Progress and a Marriage

I wish everyday could be like today- full of tangible progress. I was speaking with police academy recruits this morning- I spoke with two classes about Project Smile. The goal of speaking to the recruits is to raise awareness and encourage the recruits to use stuffed animals when interacting with children once they graduate and start work. I think it went over well. I was sharing the feedback that we get from officers who use our items and the impact that such a small gesture has on children. The Lt. was with me and he spoke with the recruits as well about the importance of having items for children, so that made a difference as well. The police academy is very formal- they stand up when you enter the room and leave and when they speak it is always 'yes m'am, no m'am, good afternoon m'am..' It is a little unnerving, but sort of cool as well- having a room full of attractive single men stand up when you walk in does have a pretty good effect on a single girl!

I also did a stuffed animal donation to Fallon Ambulance. They are the primary ambulance service to Quincy and a number of other south shore towns as well. Lt. Sullivan had recommended working with them and he organized it for me. They were very receptive. It always feels so good when we expand and work with new departments. Then, I was back at the station to sell calendars at roll call. I had a about an hour to wait before roll call, so the Lt. set me up in someone's office so I could use the computer and get caught up with emails and make some phone calls- I really appreciated that because I hate to waste time hanging around. I sold 13 calendars at the roll call which was pretty good- almost everyone who was there bought one. I'll go back either next week or the following week to a midnite roll call to sell calendars there- they are always very responsive- probably because they know that I wouldn't be there at midnite if it wasn't a big deal. Today felt great because I was getting things done, meeting new people, selling some calendars- it was perfect. I wish every day could have results like this. I usually work a lot but won't necessarily get any results for a while.

I spoke with the event planner when I was driving home. She had a successful meeting earlier today with the venue which was great. The event is still taking form and is changing direction from what we had originally settled on. Kait had some new ideas that she wants to explore. I'm all for changing direction if we are going to improve an event, but I'm not on board with the new ideas. I told Kait that and I also told her that I trust her judgment and if she thinks that this will be a successful event, then she can go ahead with it. I know that I don't know everything and I believe in letting professionals do their job. I judge a lot of things by stepping back and deciding whether or not it is something that if I had nothing to do with PS, would I like it. I use this as a marker for basically everything- our website, our Aidmatrix page, my voicemail, grants and particularly events. I want to have an event that I would want to go to if I saw it advertised. Every event that I've done is an event that I would want to go to. Right now, I'm not feeling the event with these new ideas and that makes me worried. It's a fine line to walk between trusting someone elses vision and my gut reaction. Honestly, I'm not sure what to do- I've never been in this position before. Everything that I've done has been my vision- of course I've gotten help along the way, but the events are my idea and they have worked out well. However, the whole point of working with an event planner is for her to develop some great events that are going to raise money and I believe that Kait has the potential to do that- I wouldn't have signed up with her if I didn't think that. But I also need to listen to myself and not ignore my own thoughts- blind faith in someone else is a sign of stupidity. So to sum it up- we have some issues to work out- I believe they can be worked out and we can have an awesome event, but it needs to come together at rapid speed since we are only two months out.

Anyways, that's about it for tonight. I'm having lunch with a friend tomorrow that I'm looking forward to. I also have about 50 other things to do. There were other things that I wanted to talk about, but can't remember. Yikes- I did forget some really cool news- I should have said that in the beginning- a date auction couple got married! How totally awesome is that? I found out when I was at the police academy today and we were talking about the date auction to one of the officers that runs the academy and he said that he had been in touch with one of the guys that got auctioned off last year and he had just married the girl. I had emailed with the girl about 6 months ago and she told me they were together, but I had no idea they got married. That is so cool and will definitely be used to promote next years event. Project Smile dating service here we come!

OK, it is 12:51 and I'm going to bed. I say that every night and can't seem to master going to bed before 2am. I know it must be getting pretty boring to read the same thing every night. My eyes are hurting and I have a bit of a headache, so I really will go to bed. Until next time friends..