Wednesday Happenings

So what's new? Well, we've been doing more calendar photo shoots. Yesterday's photos came out really cute. I have 2 more photos scheduled for tomorrow, there was another one scheduled but they had to change. There are still a lot more that I need to schedule. It is working out well expanding to include other children.

I've been trying to wrap things up- I'm going away for a couple of days and I want to come back to an almost clean slate. I've been cleaning up and organizing my desk and catching up on things. We're about to start a new month too, so that is an extra reason to get organized before the new month starts.

There are a lot of other things going on, but I'm awfully tired and starting to forget. One of our event partners helped get a number of cool gift bag items for our date auction- a number of them are hair related, one is a coupon for a hair cut at a Boston salon and a complimentary manicure. We have some pretty cool gift bags donations so far.

I'm sorry this is a boring blog post- I've gone to sleep really late for the last couple of nights and I'm really dragging right now. I don't mean to be so dull though. There is so much going on with the calendar, anniversary event, date auction and all the regular things, there is no reason to have a boring blog- but my eyes are getting tired and I can't focus anymore. I need to finish packing, get some more things cleaned up and head to bed. Until next time friends- when I promise I will be more interesting!

Photo Day

Today was a photo day, I did 2 photo shoots today. This morning I was in Franklin taking photos with a group of children from a moms club. The children were really young, but they did a great job. I always try to move as fast as possible when dealing with little kids. The photos came out really cute. This afternoon, I was doing photos at a local fire department. I have 3 photos scheduled for tomorrow, then one on Thursday. We still have a lot more photo shoots to schedule, but we're making progress. I still have that last calendar month to fill, I need to get working on that more.

I think I forgot to mention, we got a pair of round trip airline tickets donated for our date auction, so that will be great. We've been getting some really good auction items in lately. The Marriott hotel donated an overnight stay at any of their hotels- I love it when the hotels donate gift certificates that can be used at any of their locations.

So what else is happening? I need to keep working on date auction marketing. One of the magazines that used to donate an ad space isn't able to donate anymore. I can purchase an ad for a good discount, but it is still a little pricey. Some people have told me not to do it- people whose opinions I value. My instinct is that I should take out the ad though. I'm not sure what I'm going to do- obviously I don't want to spend the money, but I do want to reach as many people as possible. I read this magazine all the time and I know it is popular. I still have other a month to decide. We're working with a new website to help promote our date auction as well, so that is good. I've been reaching out to other places as well to add to our marketing- there is no such thing as too much event marketing.

Well, I'm going back to work. I have a lot of emails to send and I need to clean up my office. Until tomorrow friends..

Wednesday Happenings

Did you ever have a day where you worked hard, but don't remember a single thing you did? I had that kind of day. Before I started blogging, I was thinking about my day and realized I didn't really remember very much. I did contact two anniversary event sponsors that I hadn't yet reached out to. In good calendar news, another sponsor is back on board, so now we are only 1 1/2 months short, so that isn't too bad. I haven't scheduled anymore calendar shoots yet- I have quite a few for next week and I spoke with a number of people, but there are still a lot more to schedule. The scheduling part is always the hardest- doing the photos is easy. It gets frustrating sometimes trying to get them all scheduled and constantly following up with people.

We're moving along with gift certificates for the date auction- we're still short on the 40 that we need, but quite a bit of progress has been made lately. I need 8 more ladies to be auctioned and a lot of men. We're way short on fire fighters and police- it always takes a while to get them signed up, so that is hardly new. I always hate it though- in my perfect world, I would have all the bachelors signed up by now, photos and profile info in hand and ready to go. Of course, in my perfect world, I would have a few million dollars in the bank too!

I did mail stuffed animals to a Cape Cod police department today, I have a box of coloring books/crayons and reading books to send them tomorrow as well. I was supposed to drop them off a while ago, but wasn't able to. I would have liked to have done a photograph with them, but it is simpler to just mail the items. I have so much work here that needs done, it is hard to take all the time to drive down there. There is another department that I need to mail stuffed animals to as well.

Well friends, I think that's it for tonight. I know this was not exactly the most fascinating blog. Quick update- the meeting with the potential date auction sponsor was canceled. We have a tentative reschedule date in July, so I'll let you know. I also used LinkedIn yesterday to help get an auction item donor on board. I was on my account for another reason and I saw the list of potential connections that I may know- i shared quite a few connections with this one lady, so I clicked on her profile to find out more about her. It turns out, she was pretty interesting, she started her own biscotti making company in RI. I decided to call her and see if she would be interested in donating a gift basket for our anniversary event. She was so nice on the phone and agreed to donate. I'm going to put more effort into using LinkedIn. I've had my account on there for ages, but outside of adding connections, I don't really utilize it. I'm going to change that.

Anyways. I'm off to eat a few more cherries and some more delicious cheese and crackers. I bought a phenomenal cheese on Sunday and can't get enough of it. I can't even pronounce the name of it or remember how to spell it, I've never had it before- I need to write it down, so the next time I go to my favorite Italian food store in Providence, I will see if they have it there. Ah, delicious food- how wonderful it is! Until tomorrow friends...

Calendar Photos

Calendar photos officially started today. I always forget how much fun it is until I start doing them again. It really is a blast. It is so much fun to meet the families, take photos and then go back to work, load the photos in and find the perfect one- I love it. I did two photo shoots in Upton today of local families. I'm broadening the calendar more to include other families besides police and fire fighters. There is a long way to go to get the calendar photos done, it feels great to be started.

Another calendar sponsor is back on board today, so that was good news. I still have two months unsold, which isn't too bad. I also got some new cool auction items. I'm way short on gift certificates for the date auction couples though, that has been really slow. I'm going to start contacting restaurants outside of Boston now- ones in Cambridge, Newton, etc. Maybe it will be a little easier than Boston places.

The mom who called me last week to thank us after her daughter received our stuffed animal did email us her story- it is an awesome email. We will definitely include it in our grants. It is really important to have letters like that. The only other one that I have was from 2007, so it is great that we can circulate a new one.

I have a meeting tomorrow morning with a potential date auction sponsor, so wish me luck! Our event would be a great fit for her business, so hopefully it will go well. I will keep you posted. We're still short on our date auction sponsorship goal, so it will be a big help to have this sponsor on board.

Well friends, that's it for tonight. I'm going to clean my office- I was home early tonight and already got started. Then I'm going to write my list, I've been slipping a lot with my list writing and need to get back on track. Until tomorrow...

So Much News!

I have been such a dreadful blogger lately- I am so sorry! It is 1am now, but I couldn't go to bed without blogging. I wanted to share a call that I got yesterday afternoon. I was working and was not in the best of moods. The phone rang and it was a mom from Worcester, she was calling to thank us for our work. Her 3 year old daughter was recently having trouble breathing and the mother had to call 911. The Worcester fire fighters arrived and assisted the little girl, then one of them gave the girl a stuffed animal. The mom said that it immediately changed things for her daughter- the little girl calmed down and it brought a smile to her face. The mom was so happy about the effect the stuffed animal had on her girl that she looked us up online and called. How awesome is that? I was so happy to hear her story and glad that her daughter was fine. I asked her if she could email us her story so we could include it with our grants. She said she would, but hasn't done it yet. I don't have her phone number, so I really hope that she does email us. It is very rare that I actually hear from families who receive our items, so this was really special.

In other good news, we have a speaker for our Anniversary Celebration- so there will be no more blog posts lamenting that I don't have a speaker. It was kind of funny how it happened. Last Wednesday morning, one of our volunteers was here and I was griping to her about how we still don't have a speaker (forgetting that it took me until July last year to get one), when the phone rang- I was still complaining as I picked up the phone. It was Pam Cross, reporter and anchor from Channel 5, Boston, saying that she would like to be involved and speak at our event. I was so happy. She has a cool background and I think she will do a great job. It is awesome to have that taken care of.

Calendar photos are starting next week. I've been expanding our scope a bit to include children that are not related to police/fire fighters. I think it is good to reach out to new supporters by broadening the calendar. We're still doing the children wit their police/fire fighter parents from departments that participate, but now we'll have other kids too. I did get some more commitments for calendar sponsorship, but we're still short.

Well, there is a lot more to talk about, but I think that is it for tonight. I slept for almost an hour and have an energy rush, so I'm going to get back to work for a bit. I lost a piece of paper that I need to work, so I also need to spend some time looking for that. Until next time friends...

Welcome June

I can't believe we are already in June, the half way point of the year. It is a little overwhelming because the pace really picks up for what we need to get done- calendar photo shoots need to be scheduled, the rest of the calendar ads sold and a ton of date auction and anniversary celebration work. We're not particularly behind on things right now, but there is so much more that needs to be done. I go through this every year and it works out fine in the end, one would think that I would be calm by now- but I'm not. Just because it worked out before, doesn't guarantee it will work out this time. I need to stop thinking about the big picture and focus on all the smaller, immediate tasks that need to get done- then the bigger picture falls into place.

Anyways, so what's new? Well, we are getting some good auction items coming lately- golf outings, theater tickets, restaurant certificates and others. We still don't have a guest speaker for our anniversary event. I made some follow up phone calls today, so hopefully we will get some good news soon. I really want to get this taken care of as soon as possible, so I can move onto other things.

I did get our June newsletter finished today, Lisa formatted it and our web host has it now, so it should go out soon. I used to do a monthly newsletter, but I've missed quite a few months recently. I need to get back to our monthly news. There really is no excuse not to get it done. I know that I get caught up with other tasks and the newsletter slips down the totem pole, but that isn't acceptable. We need to have a consistent monthly newsletter- our mailing list is the largest it has ever been and we need to stay in touch with our supporters. No more missing months!

Well, I am getting energized and I'm going to head back to work, I have a million things to catch up on and now is a good time to do it. Until next time friends..