Good News

Greetings friends! So what's new? Well, last week, we donated to our newest department- Brookline Fire. I'm always happy to add a new department. Another new department also reached out this week, we are planning a donation to them in early December.



In other good news, we received a $3,000 grant from the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation. The Foundation has been supporting us for almost 10 years. I am a huge fan of local banks- they are some of the best community supporters and make a huge difference in supporting their towns. I feel like a lot of their work in the community goes unnoticed. We have our business banking account with Rockland Trust and I have my personal banking with Milford National Bank. I owe so much of our fundraising success to our local banks, particularly these two. They have been there since almost the beginning. Not only are they great supporters for local charities, but they also have good services and excellent customer service.

I'm starting work on 2016 plans and I would like to expand to do more for homeless children and families. I was reading an article today about a Thanksgiving dinner that was served this week for Boston area homeless families. The article was talking about how hard it is for homeless families who are living in hotels/motels. They only have a microwave in their room and aren't able to cook for their children. Homelessness gets more attention with  the holidays coming up, but these families are in need all year long. I would like to organize a dinner event next year, in the early summer for homeless families. I'm going to start reaching out to some connections and see if we could do it in Worcester. I have a host venue in mind that we could possibly use for the event. Obviously, it isn't a cure to the problem, but it would be nice to put together an event where homeless families can enjoy a nice dinner.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I'm off to respond to emails. Until next time friends...

Event Success!

Greetings friends! Well, this blog post is late in coming. Our last big event- our Project Smile 12th Anniversary Celebration went great! We raised $8,000 for Project Smile and had a good attendance. Our guest speaker Lt. Governor Polito was excellent. She spoke so passionately about the importance of helping children and the opiate crisis. She also recognized some of our long time supporters by name which was perfect. Our supporters were touched that she singled them out to recognize them by name. Our jazz group, the Barry Levine trio, did a wonderful job performing. Our volunteers did an awesome job helping out with setting up and making sure the event ran smoothly. Dick Ferrucci, our event host, worked his usual magic in hosting the live auction. He is the best charity auctioneer you can imagine!

Here is a photo with Lt. Governor Polito and Miss Massachusetts, one of our special guests.  The next photo is with friends and long time supporters from the Women's Success Network.

Konditor Meister, the amazing bakery in Braintree donated this beautiful cake for the event. Their cakes are not only beautiful, but delicious too. Here we are- about to cut the cake!

I love this photo our our board member Michelle, with her family. Her daughter is our 2016 PS calendar cover baby. The photo below that is with Kelli, owner of Theracopia Wellness Center in Southboro. She is one of our board members and donated a beautiful basket for the live auction.

Here is a nice photo with the Worcester East Department of Children of Families area director and the Lt. Governor.

 The Lt. Governor was so nice and bought 2 handmade garden gnomes at the live auction that my friend Brian makes and donates for our event every year.

These photos are courtesy of Clark Linehan, who generously donated his services along with Walter Smith.
Thanks so much to everyone who sponsored, donated auction items, volunteered and attended. I really appreciate your support.
Until tomorrow friends...

Event Excitement

Greetings friends! Only 3 days to go until our big night- the Project Smile 12th Anniversary Celebration. All these months of work and it will all come down to 3 hours on Friday night. We are in a good position for the event. I picked up our calendars on Monday and they look beautiful. Our printer had a technical issue with his machines and that caused the calendar to be delayed for over a week and a half. I was starting to get worried last week, but they ended up being ready by the end of the day on Friday. It's so good that we always get them to the printer almost a month before we need them. I always tell them that I need the calendars a week before I actually do, just in case something happens- it gives us extra time to work with. I picked up some beautiful gift baskets lately for the silent auction- Mary Jo Eagan, a Tupperware consultant, always makes us a gorgeous basket filled with Tupperware. Here is a photo, but it doesn't quite do it justice.

I also picked up a beautiful basket from Dunkin Donuts in Mendon this morning. It is literally filled with bags of coffee, travel mug, 2 t-shirts and other items. It's always great to have pretty baskets like this because it helps with the room decoration.

I was up until 3:30am working on things. I finished almost all of the bid sheets. Tomorrow, I'm meeting one of our great volunteers who helped get beautiful pieces of jewelry for the event. Once I have those, I can do those bid sheets. Another long-time supporter and Mary Kay consultant, dropped off a gift item this afternoon for the auction, so I need to get that bid sheet done as well. After bid sheets last night, I felt inspired and did the powerpoint slideshow of our calendar photos and PS photos from throughout the year. I always play it during the event and it gives guests something else to enjoy. The calendar prints black/white, so it's nice to be able to show the original color photos. I had to buy a projector for the very first time. One of our other supporters had been able to borrow one from his office for many years, but that isn't possible. I bought a super cheap one last year which didn't even work. I decided to make the investment and bought one today. It was a little pricey, but the quality is amazing. I tried it out tonight to make sure everything was working properly. It's really an impressive piece of equipment.

Tomorrow, I'm picking up our event programs. We have a new business consultant at Staples and she has been awesome so far. She sent an introductory email yesterday and I wrote back to her late last night with our program. She responded early this morning and even offered to have the programs delivered- never had that before!

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I have to respond to a few emails, then I'm heading to bed. I was up early to promote our event on our local radio station WMRC- that's always a fun experience. I love every opportunity to talk about Project Smile! Until tomorrow friends...

Latest and Greatest

Greetings friends! It has been a very long time since my last posting. I can't believe that I haven't blogged since August. There is lots happening, so it definitely wasn't that I didn't have any news. I got out of the habit of blogging regularly and when you do that, it can be hard to get back into the groove. Anyways, so what's new?

Well, the Date Auction, our big event, was last month. It went great. We raised 10K and had a lot of great feedback from participants and sponsors. The event was in the Boston Globe's Names section again which was great. Here are some photos from the event. The Rev Girls were special guests and did an awesome job. Here is a photo from the Globe's Names section. Photo courtesy of Clark Linehan. Check out other photos from the event too. The rest of the photos are courtesy of Walter Smith.

A special thank you to our awesome bachelors and bachelorettes, our event sponsors- Jess Meet Ken- an awesome new dating app that everyone should check out- http://www.jessmeetken.com/

Melanie Fleet, a Boston area Realtor with Keller Williams, UsTrendy, Yelp, Boston Event Guide and Sofft Shoes. Our hosts Michael Winter and Julie Devereaux from WROR did a terrific job. I was happy that we had a good event. 

Well, I need to get back to working on our 12th Anniversary Celebration which is rapidly approaching- next Friday! I promise to be back on the blogging wagon- it does feel great to be blogging again! Until tomorrow friends..

Busy Days

Greetings friends! So what's new? Well, the super busy days are here. The Date Auction is a little over 3 weeks away, calendar photos are wrapping up, the fall fashion show is just about a month away and our Anniversary Celebration is in October. So much going on, it is hard to keep up. On the good news front, we are almost done with photos. The goal is to finish photos by next Wednesday. I have one more half month of advertising to sell and then we will be all set with calendar ads. One of my favorite things is seeing how the children that have been in the calendar multiple times, are growing up. Yesterday, I was in Marlboro doing photos with the children of two officers. One of the officers has twin girls who have been in the calendar since they were toddlers. They are about 9 years old now and so cute. They are both cheerleaders, so I asked them if they wanted to do a cheerleading pose for the photos, they did a pose where one girl sat on her sister's shoulders. Their dad stood next to them- it was such an adorable photo. Today, I was doing photos with the children of one our long time supporters. He has 3 boys who are all cute kids- they've been on the calendar cover before. Their youngest is 4 years old and is really adorable. He also talks like a little grown up- he was walking down the sidewalk and announced in a grown up voice that the  "sun is so bright. It is blinding my eyes." - not what you usually hear from a 4 year old.

On the Date Auction front, we've reached our sponsorship goal which is great. We moved the event to the nightclub Icon. It is in the same building as Venu, it's just on the main floor. It was redesigned last year and looks really cool. Guests get to stay after at Icon which is a nice bonus. We've got some awesome singles signed up to participate, but still need a few more to sign up, so if you can help us by spreading the word and recruiting some fun single guys or ladies to participate, that would be great. Here is the flyer which can be downloaded and shared.

Well, there's lots more to write about, but I need to get some work done on our fall fashion show. Until tomorrow friends...

Calendar Photos Underway

Greetings friends! It has been way too long since my last blog, so I was determined to blog tonight, no matter what. It has been a busy few weeks. Calendar photos are underway and they have been coming out great. On Sunday, I did photos with the daughter of one of our former interns, Amanda. The little one year old is so adorable and was one of the best babies I've ever photographed. She loved her having her picture taken and was so happy and smiling, it was great. We did photos right outside in our garden, so that made it even easier. Amanda was an awesome intern, so it made it extra special that her baby will be in our calendar. Yesterday, I did photos with the baby of one of the bachelorettes who participated in our Date Auction some years ago. She married a police officer (not one from the Date Auction!) and had a baby 6 months ago. I'm friends with her on FB and reached out to her to see if she would like to have her son participate. Her little baby is so beautiful. It was a fun photo shoot because he would make some of the funniest little faces that I've seen- his personality was definitely already showing. I'm doing more photos tomorrow and Friday. I have a few more scheduled after that and a bunch that still need to get scheduled. It gets challenging scheduling things in the summer because of people's vacations.


Today, we made another donation of 200 stuffed animals, books, puzzles and coloring books/crayons to Worcester PD. One of the police officers that I've worked with before called yesterday and asked if we could donate some items for children. Here is a photo from the donation.

Well, I know that was a short posting, but I'm getting tired and need to head to bed. I promise to get back to blogging regularly and not be a slacker blogger! Until next time friends...

Latest and Greatest

Greetings friends! Ah, it has been too long since I last blogged! There has been lots going on, so it's not like I have nothing to write about. So what's new? Well, we've been doing a bunch of donations including DCF last week, Fitchburg PD, The St. Ambrose Family shelter in Dorchester and a Newton homeless shelter for battered women and children called Second Step. I had called my contact at Newton PD to see if they needed more items for children, which they did. The Lt. that I work with suggested that I reach out to this Newton shelter and see if they needed items. They were happy to have an assortment of coloring books/crayons and reading books. I also included some really nice kids puzzles that had been donated to us. We've been getting some awesome donations lately from readers of Women's World magazine. One lady from Florida took the time to write us a handwritten note, asking what items we needed. She said that she read about us in the magazine, but didn't have access to a computer. She said that she would go to the Dollar store and buy items for us and mail them. I hand wrote a Project Smile card back to her, thanking her and letting her know what items we needed. It was so sweet to get her note. Here is a photo from our donation to the Second Step shelter. I'm happy that we were able to add a new shelter to partner with.

In other news, we already have 5 participants signed up to participate in the Date Auction. We're partnering with one of Boston's biggest nightlife companies, 6one7 Productions. They are helping with recruiting bachelors/ettes and promoting the event. They were a big help last year with recruiting participants. This time we are including them as an official event partner. Ace, one of the owners of the company, posted the recruiting flyer, on FB today and we got some immediate responses.

I've been getting back into going to a lot of networking events lately. I had gotten out of the routine a bit, but now I have a friend who also enjoys going to networking events for her own company, so we've been going together and it has been great. When you make the commitment to someone else that you're going to be attending, it really ensures that you do actually go to the event. It's easy when you're tired at the end of the day and don't feel like making the drive, to blow off attending. It makes such a difference to have a friend going as well.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I'm off to eat some more watermelon and watch the rest of Game 4 of the NBA Finals- go Cavs! Until next time friends...