Creating Community Connections for a Cause
Who doesn't love a party any time of the year? Especially when it's outdoors, a fundraiser, community builder, and you get to enjoy it all with over a thousand of your closest friends in the community?
This past summer, I helped plan and host a big event to benefit our local children's theater. It involved food trucks, a bounce house, over twenty activity booths, a visit from the local pet shelter and the fire department, plus a full day of singing, dancing and music performed by children, teens and adults of all ages from various creative-arts groups.
Working with the larger community, making connections with other businesses and nonprofits, and helping to provide a safe, fun space for families to enjoy an afternoon together, is so rewarding.
It's at the core of who I am, where I enjoy spending my time and focusing my efforts when I'm not working on voiceovers.
Collaborating with Businesses and Community Leaders
It was fun contacting businesses to ask for raffle donations or to become an Event Sponsor and have a table and booth with a fun activity for kids to play or to donate in-kind goods and services. This way, it added to the festivities and also was a great way for businesses to get out and meet people and explain the benefits of what they have to offer. I always enjoy both of these collaborations, where both parties benefit; we have what they want, which is eyeballs on their name and logo, and they have what we want, which is goods, services and their time. I love the give and take, and not feeling like I am just asking for a hand-out and giving nothing in return. Our Events Team really goes the extra mile to be sure that any business that we solicit feels like they are being treated as a partner in the event and will even get benefits that last beyond the actual date, in the form of exposure through the year for their business.
Inviting the City Council and School Board to come and join us is a way for us to make connections, and for those making decisions within the city to see some of what we do and the impact we have with the community.
Hard Work that Pays Off
Of course, spending the day with people I know from the theater, both past and present, piano students and their families, both old and new, and meeting and working with new-to-me adults and kids, is always a treat.
Even though it's a lot of work that includes about nine months of planning, and it's pretty much the longest day of the year for me, it's all worth it, and I wish we could do more than one big event like this a year.
And the fact that we raised money for such a good cause? That's just icing on the proverbial cake!
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