Happy Anniversary!

Friday, April 8, was the 7th anniversary of Project Smile's official incorporation as a non profit organization. The day also happens to be my brother's birthday. I started Project Smile in October of the year before- which is why we are celebrating our 8th Anniversary this fall and why our special event is in October. But it was on my brother's birthday that we came official.

I have good news to report- we have a guest speaker for our 8th Anniversary Celebration! It will be Steve Aveson, the new morning news anchor for NECN. Yes- we are still on the news anchor/reporter theme for guest speakers. They do a really good job, are reliable and I think they are some one that our guests enjoy listening to. I'm happy that he is on board and we are now all set with that. I'm going to submit our website updates tomorrow so we can get that on our site.

I did a follow up donation of stuffed animals, coloring books/crayons and reading books the the South Middlesex Opportunity Council in Framingham- they provide services for the family homeless shelters throughout the Metro West area and they and other services for families in need. Can you imagine that there are 3,000 children living in shelters in our state? That is such a shocking number. There are 1,000 families living in motels while waiting to be placed in shelters. We are going to be doing donations to SMOC every few months so we can keep expanding our efforts to help kids living in shelters. When I did our donation today, I was talking with Susan- my contact person at SMOC- about the number of families in shelters and we were also talking about the poverty that exists in the towns that used to have strong manufacturing base. Tomorrow, I want to contact some of the smaller towns out in the western part of the state so we can donate to their police/fire departments and shelters. It has been a while since we've donated to any of the towns west of Worcester.

So that's the latest friends- well, there is more to report, but I'm trying to get to bed early so I can have a good start tomorrow morning. Along with contacting those police/fire departments, I want to follow up with some of the other departments that we are already working with and I also need to work on some grants tomorrow and getting more sponsors for the date auction and anniversary event. So, I'm off to write my list, not eat anymore because I already enjoyed crackers, cheese and grapes while watching Bethenny Ever After- and head to bed. Until tomorrow friends..