Now that the biggest event of my semester and of HCCA's year is over, I can focus on what I've been most excited for during this internship: working on outreach material for HCCA's newsletters, website, emails, and action alerts and connecting Western with HCCA. Although I'm not working on any current projects, I'll let you all know what is in the works for the near future. First, I have a list of prompts from the outreach director to be used to write small blips of information to get our members and beyond pumped about local conservation, protection, and politics. This includes tactics on how to get involved, information to teach our community something new, or just inspiring words to get our members and beyond into action. Second, I have a service learning project for my ENVS 350 course this semester. I want to do something related with local politics as we are engaging the ENVS 100 students in this project and I think it would be a great idea to expose them to local politics firsthand. The outreach director suggested planning and hosting a watershed management planning meeting as this is something that HCCA has in the works for this upcoming year too. Third, I am tasked with finding ways to connect HCCA with Western students in any way I can come up with. At this point I've only thought of tabling at events or combining efforts with existing organizations and groups on campus to put on events or support causes.
There are lot's of great things coming up for the rest of the semester. I'm definitely excited to see what I can accomplish. Stay tuned!
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The Annual Red Lady Salvation Ball Event!
This past week was all about the last few preparations for the Ball. I spent the majority of my nights this week creating information sheets about each silent auction prize as well as a bid sheet to accompany them. This was a lot of going back and forth between emails and word documents, finding pictures off of websites, creating descriptions for each prize, and making sure I was listing all of the monetary values correctly. In the end they turned out awesome! A lot of people were pumped about the silent auction prizes, so I'm glad all my help with solicitations was worth it!
Saturday was the day of the Ball. I met with my internship supervisor, Mel, in the morning to go over the detail of the event later that day. This would help me know what to do and allow me to help other volunteers know what to do too. We then loaded all of the decorations, signs, tables, and such into the car and headed over. Decorating went smoothly. We had 5 people total helping to decorate the entire interior and doorway of The Eldo. Although I originally thought that 5 people was going to be too little of an amount, decorating went smoothly. We covered the inside and the doorway with every red material we had; we even swapped out the white light bulbs for red!
I was set at the door checking the ticket list, selling tickets, and putting on wristbands. I had no idea how crazy people would dress up for this event! Old prom dresses, red costumes like morph-suits or long suits and top hats, masks, makeup, you name it! The guests attending went all out! Eventually I went to the raffle table and sold raffle tickets and band merchandise. For the rest of the evening I went back and forth between those two stations, helping out where ever I could.
Although I haven't heard the final total on how many guests attended or what the final total of money raised was, it looked like a good turnout. We didn't come as close to selling out as we wanted, but the silent auction and the raffle sales seemed to go really well! In the end, learning all about setting up a fundraising event that was more than just a regular fundraising event has been a great experience.
Saturday was the day of the Ball. I met with my internship supervisor, Mel, in the morning to go over the detail of the event later that day. This would help me know what to do and allow me to help other volunteers know what to do too. We then loaded all of the decorations, signs, tables, and such into the car and headed over. Decorating went smoothly. We had 5 people total helping to decorate the entire interior and doorway of The Eldo. Although I originally thought that 5 people was going to be too little of an amount, decorating went smoothly. We covered the inside and the doorway with every red material we had; we even swapped out the white light bulbs for red!
I was set at the door checking the ticket list, selling tickets, and putting on wristbands. I had no idea how crazy people would dress up for this event! Old prom dresses, red costumes like morph-suits or long suits and top hats, masks, makeup, you name it! The guests attending went all out! Eventually I went to the raffle table and sold raffle tickets and band merchandise. For the rest of the evening I went back and forth between those two stations, helping out where ever I could.
Although I haven't heard the final total on how many guests attended or what the final total of money raised was, it looked like a good turnout. We didn't come as close to selling out as we wanted, but the silent auction and the raffle sales seemed to go really well! In the end, learning all about setting up a fundraising event that was more than just a regular fundraising event has been a great experience.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Final Red Lady Salvation Ball Week!
It's the week of the Ball! That means closing up on all things donations and starting prep for the event itself. I learned a lot from soliciting donations, but it's definitely not something I would want to do all day. My tasks this past week and this upcoming week have been/are writing thank you's to all of our awesome community businesses or members who donated to the silent auction and raffle, creating info sheets for the prizes, and creating bidding sheets for the silent auction.
It has been fun to go through this process and gain the experience of how this all works. I remember riding around in the car with my mom while she solicited donations for our boy scout troop in the town where I'm from. Seeing this process and going through this process are definitely two completely different things. As I see myself paying more attention to what jobs I want in the future, I believe that any experience I can gain from any type of organization, business, group, etc. is beneficial. I will be able to apply these experiences to different situations I am faced with in the future. As far as soliciting donations goes, I know that if put in this same position again I'll know exactly what to do.
As always, the Red Lady Salvation Ball is THIS SATURDAY, February 17th, starting at 7:30pm at the Eldo in Crested Butte. Tickets are being sold all week. You know you want to put on your favorite red clothes, hang out with some fun community members, win or bid on some awesome prizes, jam out to the funk of The Pimps of Joytime, and especially help support your local HCCA working to keep Red Lady mine free!
It has been fun to go through this process and gain the experience of how this all works. I remember riding around in the car with my mom while she solicited donations for our boy scout troop in the town where I'm from. Seeing this process and going through this process are definitely two completely different things. As I see myself paying more attention to what jobs I want in the future, I believe that any experience I can gain from any type of organization, business, group, etc. is beneficial. I will be able to apply these experiences to different situations I am faced with in the future. As far as soliciting donations goes, I know that if put in this same position again I'll know exactly what to do.
As always, the Red Lady Salvation Ball is THIS SATURDAY, February 17th, starting at 7:30pm at the Eldo in Crested Butte. Tickets are being sold all week. You know you want to put on your favorite red clothes, hang out with some fun community members, win or bid on some awesome prizes, jam out to the funk of The Pimps of Joytime, and especially help support your local HCCA working to keep Red Lady mine free!
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Donation Solicitation Round #3
I was hoping this past week would be the end of it. Too many business owners were out of town or too busy all week in order to close it off completely. It's not an awful process, but it's not an incredibly fun process either. This process is a great way to raise money for HCCA and so I am committed to it until the end! This past week of solicitations went very well. I was able to get confirmations from businesses, pick up a couple of donations, and be able to start checking solicitation related items off of my to-do list. On top of that, posters were hung around town and on campus. Slowly but surely things are coming together.
Sometimes when working for a cause centered around the environment, you don't always see results right away. That can be a little deflating especially when you're putting a lot of work into it. While fundraisers don't seem like a huge step in the process, they are extremely important in facilitating the work done for the cause. These indirectly affecting steps in the problem-solution process can be the most rewarding psychologically. You see results right away, whether that's via the physical donations, the money made on them, or just the support of the community and the people that show up.
So long story short, I did wish this past week would have been the last week of soliciting. However, I will admit that the physical, psychological, and emotional rewards do feel pretty good. I know I'm helping to help a great organization doing some great things and that within itself feels the greatest overall.
As always...the Red Lady Salvation Ball is February 17th, starting @ 7:30 in The Eldo. Come dressed in your favorite casual or classy red attire and enjoy great music, great prizes, great food and drink, and great company. Or in other words, come feed your physical, psychological, and emotional needs with this direct link to supporting HCCA!
Sometimes when working for a cause centered around the environment, you don't always see results right away. That can be a little deflating especially when you're putting a lot of work into it. While fundraisers don't seem like a huge step in the process, they are extremely important in facilitating the work done for the cause. These indirectly affecting steps in the problem-solution process can be the most rewarding psychologically. You see results right away, whether that's via the physical donations, the money made on them, or just the support of the community and the people that show up.
So long story short, I did wish this past week would have been the last week of soliciting. However, I will admit that the physical, psychological, and emotional rewards do feel pretty good. I know I'm helping to help a great organization doing some great things and that within itself feels the greatest overall.
As always...the Red Lady Salvation Ball is February 17th, starting @ 7:30 in The Eldo. Come dressed in your favorite casual or classy red attire and enjoy great music, great prizes, great food and drink, and great company. Or in other words, come feed your physical, psychological, and emotional needs with this direct link to supporting HCCA!
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