Celebrity Roast

Well, after months of planning, our Celebrity Roast 2010 is a fond memory!  We honored Dr. Mark O’Shuaghnessy this year, a local cardiologist.  The event is our biggest fundraiser and is also fun, something fundraisers rarely are.    The economy made things difficult this year but we were able to raise money to support our operating costs, which just don’t go away…no matter how much I want them to…Now we’ll start right back up planning for next year!

Celebrity Roast

Our main fundraiser, the Celebrity Roast, is this Friday.  Special events are a necessary evil of the non-profit world and the economy has made this year’s event an uphill battle.    My personal view of special events is that something will surely go wrong,  I just hope it’s something small and not something huge!  One event I coordinated went quickly downhill when an invitee showed up to what was supposed to be a small, sit down luncheon with 12 extra guests.  I was grabbing all my staff and yanking them out of the room so we could seat all the guests and pleading with the caterer to come up with more lunches.   Ugly, very ugly.    Or the special event where 2 guests of our got trapped in the elevator and had to be freed by a fire crew.   Good grief, it’s a wonder I am still in this business!

At least nothing I have ever done is as bad as the Aquarium in New Orleans where they let major donors feed the sharks and the platform broke and the donors fell into the water with hungry sharks.  I always hold onto that event as my certainty that nothing I do could ever be as bad as dropping donors into a shark tank.  Whoever coordinated that event is probably still curled into a fetal position sobbing….

Movie Star

I, and fellow McMillen Health Center educators Linda and Dave, are officially movie stars.  Well, short video stars.  Last week we filmed all 6 episodes of our nutrition education videos.  If I ever thought people on tv had it easy, I was set straight.  On my feet for 9 solid hours under hot lights, running back and forth with food for each episode, wardrobe changes – whew!  Derek and Portley from Punch Films were incredibly nice to us rank amateurs. 

On the plus side, my kitchen looked awesome on video and maybe it will get discovered and be rented out by a major studio!   As for myself, I realized a filmed documentation of the random items I say is most likely not in my best interest.  I expect to hear from the law firm representing Sunny D and Doritos, two products which I was especially mean to.

I am so relieved that filming is over – I was editing scripts right up until the day we started  and too stressed to see staright.  Now on to writing the website content!

Celebrity Roast

Our Celebrity Roast is fast approaching – April 30.  This year we are roasting Dr. Mark O’Shaughnessy from Fort Wayne Cardiology.  It’s a tought fundraising year, so I am hoping to meet our goal of nearly $80,000 net.   It will be difficult – between writing scripts for our nutrition videos, grant writing and worrying about this Roast I am not getting any sleep at all!

Road Trip!

Spent the day on a road trip to South Bend put together by the Dekko Foundation.  Met a bunch of great people from the Kendallville area and visited HealthWorks again.  The hospital in South Bend is very innovative and does an amazing number of community health projects.  Lots of ideas – discovered thought that bus rides make me feel pretty rough.  Not as rough as the Director of Science Central who tossed his cookies on the drive up and then got teased about it all day!!

Video Education Coming Your Way

Just back from a great meeting with the K21 Foundation in Warsaw – they are funding our new online nutrition education videos.   Potential of more funding to provide $100 cash incentives to childcare givers who complete the program.  Passed 6 accidents on the way back to the office, glad to be back in one piece!

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