Sorry for yet another post, but we're having a busy week! This is sort of unrelated to everything, buuuut...
We definitely need a way to have meetings over the summer. Since it's so difficult for us all to get rides, the best way to interact is over the internet. I think AIM is most popular, so post your AIM address here.
I think there's a few of us that don't have one.
We could use other mediums if there's a problem...but we'll try to work those out as we come across them. The screennames are easy and free to make and I'm pretty sure you can use AIM without downloading it. It isn't very taxing on your computer, either, so there aren't many reasons not to download it if you don't have it already. If you have issues, I could help walk you through it.
It would just be much easier to say "everyone be online at 7 on Friday" than "everyone meet at the library in the middle of the day".
Once everyone posts it, we'll all have the information handy.
Yay or Nay?
~Melissa
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Celebrity Help and Music for the Event
Hey everyone!
It’s Chelsea again. In my last post I mentioned that I was going to be working on sending letters to celebrities to see if we gain their help with raising awareness and money for our cause, and I’m going to elaborate on some more of my thoughts here. My first issue is where to send the letters to. Now, I can actually mail out letters to the address listed for fan mail, or I can send messages through the artists Facebook accounts. I was thinking of using Facebook because it ensures that they’ll get it faster and we could get a reply faster as well; also I think they’d be more likely to see it there. I know agents are responsible for reading a lot of their fan mail for them, but hopefully we can still get them to see it and get an actual reply.
There’s also the issue of who to write to. Some people that I know would appeal to the kids at the festival would be people like Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber. However, we might be able to get a greater response from a celebrity who is maybe from Florida or has worked with charities in the past. I’m currently researching that right now. This may include people that would be unknown to the kids at the festival, but widely known by other age groups. Do you think it would be a good idea to appeal to them as well? If another celebrity could donate signed items or money; come to our event; or publically speak about it to the press, it would tremendously help with raising awareness. Although our primary target for the festival is children, our primary target for raising awareness is everyone, and this could help.
Also, I know we thought about having celebrities donate signed items to auction off and raise money, but what about donating some of these signed items to the children with cancer? I think that would really make their day—to get an autograph from their favorite celebrity. Maybe we can interview the kids at the hospital and ask who their favorite celebrity is and see if we can get something donated to all of them—or, at the very least, a few of them.
Another idea I had is in regards to having live music for the festival. I don’t know if any of you know Maria Garcia, but she runs a music webzine, http://www.straightuprandom.com/, and interviews a lot of local (and even non-local) bands. If you guys wanted, I could talk to her and see if she knows of anyone who would like to perform at our event. I think having live music could draw in more people and help us raise even more money; However, it is primarily a kids event and I’m not sure if it’d be a good idea to have music that wouldn’t appeal to the children at all. We could just make a playlist of music they’d like and play that, alternating with kid’s karaoke instead. Or, maybe we can do both. We can have a band come and play for a little while and then have kid’s music and karaoke the rest of the time.
Honestly, we could probably have a whole separate event to raise money and awareness by having a few bands get together and perform—a sort of concert for charity. This could appeal to teenagers and even adults and further our awareness and raise a lot of money. I know we’ve already got a lot going on and it might be too much to try to have a whole other event, but if you guys are interested in the idea, then I can look into it. These were just a few questions, suggestions, and concerns I had in regards to all of this and I thought I’d see what everyone else thought about it. So please comment with your opinions on all of this. Thanks!
—Chelsea
It’s Chelsea again. In my last post I mentioned that I was going to be working on sending letters to celebrities to see if we gain their help with raising awareness and money for our cause, and I’m going to elaborate on some more of my thoughts here. My first issue is where to send the letters to. Now, I can actually mail out letters to the address listed for fan mail, or I can send messages through the artists Facebook accounts. I was thinking of using Facebook because it ensures that they’ll get it faster and we could get a reply faster as well; also I think they’d be more likely to see it there. I know agents are responsible for reading a lot of their fan mail for them, but hopefully we can still get them to see it and get an actual reply.
There’s also the issue of who to write to. Some people that I know would appeal to the kids at the festival would be people like Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, and Justin Bieber. However, we might be able to get a greater response from a celebrity who is maybe from Florida or has worked with charities in the past. I’m currently researching that right now. This may include people that would be unknown to the kids at the festival, but widely known by other age groups. Do you think it would be a good idea to appeal to them as well? If another celebrity could donate signed items or money; come to our event; or publically speak about it to the press, it would tremendously help with raising awareness. Although our primary target for the festival is children, our primary target for raising awareness is everyone, and this could help.
Also, I know we thought about having celebrities donate signed items to auction off and raise money, but what about donating some of these signed items to the children with cancer? I think that would really make their day—to get an autograph from their favorite celebrity. Maybe we can interview the kids at the hospital and ask who their favorite celebrity is and see if we can get something donated to all of them—or, at the very least, a few of them.
Another idea I had is in regards to having live music for the festival. I don’t know if any of you know Maria Garcia, but she runs a music webzine, http://www.straightuprandom.com/, and interviews a lot of local (and even non-local) bands. If you guys wanted, I could talk to her and see if she knows of anyone who would like to perform at our event. I think having live music could draw in more people and help us raise even more money; However, it is primarily a kids event and I’m not sure if it’d be a good idea to have music that wouldn’t appeal to the children at all. We could just make a playlist of music they’d like and play that, alternating with kid’s karaoke instead. Or, maybe we can do both. We can have a band come and play for a little while and then have kid’s music and karaoke the rest of the time.
Honestly, we could probably have a whole separate event to raise money and awareness by having a few bands get together and perform—a sort of concert for charity. This could appeal to teenagers and even adults and further our awareness and raise a lot of money. I know we’ve already got a lot going on and it might be too much to try to have a whole other event, but if you guys are interested in the idea, then I can look into it. These were just a few questions, suggestions, and concerns I had in regards to all of this and I thought I’d see what everyone else thought about it. So please comment with your opinions on all of this. Thanks!
—Chelsea
A New Way to Raise Awareness
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to create a post to inform you all of an idea I had in regards to raising awareness for our cause. I think it would be interesting—if I can make it work—to create a book that incorporates facts, real-life stories, and pictures to portray the life of a family who has a child with cancer, and the life of the child as well. It would inform the public of the struggles involved with being a child with cancer or the family of a child with cancer (including financial difficulties, emotional difficulties, etc) through facts; interviews with children, families, survivors, and maybe even doctors or hospital staff who have worked with these people; letters written by children with cancer; and pictures (of children, their families, the hospitals etc), among other things. We could talk about the Be a Star Foundation, our cause and event, and ways to help these families and children out as well.
Although it would be rather difficult, I think it would be amazing if I could get all the information I need and put the book together as soon as possible so that we can actually get it published! If we get it published we can speak about it at our event and even sell copies there as well. To get more people interested in the book, we can try to speak to news stations and ask them to mention it (didn’t someone say we could get the news to cover our event?) and do other things to raise publicity. I’m sure people would be interested in buying the book and I think it would be a great way to raise awareness. I’m not entirely sure how I’d write it yet. I can tell the stories as biographical accounts or include actual interviews, for example. I love to write, so maybe I can even create poems or something of the sort to include in the book as well (ones that relate to the cause, of course). I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’ll make sure to keep you all updated on things as I figure them out.
As of now, the things I’m going to start researching are: How to get a book published; Ways to publicize the book should we succeed in publishing it; Facts about cancer, children with cancer, families with cancer, etc. And I’ll also start looking into people, families, and children I can interview as well. I’ll try to do most of this myself, but I’m open to any suggestions any one has or any information they have that would help me put this together. So far, I’ve done a little bit of research on publishing and it does take some time to get it published. You’re main problem is finding someone to publish it for you, which could take time. Another alternative is self-publishing. Self-publishing would allow you to get copies of the book and have the book sold only locally, but it costs money to do that whereas the other option is free. Perhaps if we can’t find someone to actually publish it, we can have someone donate money to help us with self-publishing. Another problem I think we’ll have is the time constraints. I’d really like to make this work though, so if we can’t get it published by the event then I think that would be okay. I’ll try to get it done by then, but if not, I’ll continue my work with it and get it published later on down the road and we’ll do what we can to let the community know about it.
I’ll also try sending an email out to Julie Healey or Vanessa Simmons to ask them if they have any suggestions for making this work or resources to help us do so. I’d also love to hear what their thoughts on the idea are. I’ll probably send them a link to this blog. So, this is about the extent of my thoughts on this so far—it’s only a newly formed idea, after all—but I think it has a lot of potential. What do you guys think?
— Chelsea
P.s. I'm also going to be working on writing letters to people of importance (famous people, for example) to see if we can get them to donate items such as a signed CD among other things. If anyone has suggestions on who to write letters to and what to ask for it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I just wanted to create a post to inform you all of an idea I had in regards to raising awareness for our cause. I think it would be interesting—if I can make it work—to create a book that incorporates facts, real-life stories, and pictures to portray the life of a family who has a child with cancer, and the life of the child as well. It would inform the public of the struggles involved with being a child with cancer or the family of a child with cancer (including financial difficulties, emotional difficulties, etc) through facts; interviews with children, families, survivors, and maybe even doctors or hospital staff who have worked with these people; letters written by children with cancer; and pictures (of children, their families, the hospitals etc), among other things. We could talk about the Be a Star Foundation, our cause and event, and ways to help these families and children out as well.
Although it would be rather difficult, I think it would be amazing if I could get all the information I need and put the book together as soon as possible so that we can actually get it published! If we get it published we can speak about it at our event and even sell copies there as well. To get more people interested in the book, we can try to speak to news stations and ask them to mention it (didn’t someone say we could get the news to cover our event?) and do other things to raise publicity. I’m sure people would be interested in buying the book and I think it would be a great way to raise awareness. I’m not entirely sure how I’d write it yet. I can tell the stories as biographical accounts or include actual interviews, for example. I love to write, so maybe I can even create poems or something of the sort to include in the book as well (ones that relate to the cause, of course). I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’ll make sure to keep you all updated on things as I figure them out.
As of now, the things I’m going to start researching are: How to get a book published; Ways to publicize the book should we succeed in publishing it; Facts about cancer, children with cancer, families with cancer, etc. And I’ll also start looking into people, families, and children I can interview as well. I’ll try to do most of this myself, but I’m open to any suggestions any one has or any information they have that would help me put this together. So far, I’ve done a little bit of research on publishing and it does take some time to get it published. You’re main problem is finding someone to publish it for you, which could take time. Another alternative is self-publishing. Self-publishing would allow you to get copies of the book and have the book sold only locally, but it costs money to do that whereas the other option is free. Perhaps if we can’t find someone to actually publish it, we can have someone donate money to help us with self-publishing. Another problem I think we’ll have is the time constraints. I’d really like to make this work though, so if we can’t get it published by the event then I think that would be okay. I’ll try to get it done by then, but if not, I’ll continue my work with it and get it published later on down the road and we’ll do what we can to let the community know about it.
I’ll also try sending an email out to Julie Healey or Vanessa Simmons to ask them if they have any suggestions for making this work or resources to help us do so. I’d also love to hear what their thoughts on the idea are. I’ll probably send them a link to this blog. So, this is about the extent of my thoughts on this so far—it’s only a newly formed idea, after all—but I think it has a lot of potential. What do you guys think?
— Chelsea
P.s. I'm also going to be working on writing letters to people of importance (famous people, for example) to see if we can get them to donate items such as a signed CD among other things. If anyone has suggestions on who to write letters to and what to ask for it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
~Workin' at the Carwash~
RIGHT! So we're going to need supplies next weekend and guess who has to bring them? That's right! Us! So instead of trying to remember what everyone does or does not have during one of our lunch meetings, I thought the best way to organize this would be to make a list on the blog. That way everyone can access who is bringing what and no one has any excuse for not bringing what they said they would ^_~ Not that any of us would do that (except me).
This will also help eliminate the problem of 5 people bringing buckets and no one bringing sponges.
Here is a list that Juliana got from the manager at the Shell's station. He's been very supportive, so kudos to him! Thanks!
Need to bring to Car Wash:
1. Attention getting signs to be held on the corner
2. 2 or 3 buckets
3. Sponges
4. Dove dish soap
5. 2 hoses
6. Hose nozzles
7. A hose “T”. See me on this
8. Chamois, no towels
It's also been suggested that we pre-sell tickets. So we'll need someone to design a ticket on the computer so we can print and cut up copies to give to people when they buy them.
Just comment to this post saying what you can bring. Everyone should be able to bring SOMETHING. If you can't bring anything, then you can make posters. I think we'll need about four or five. BIG letters with nice advertising techniques to make people want to pull up and let us wash their car. You know how to do it.
Thanks to all~ Look forward to your comments!
~Melissa
This will also help eliminate the problem of 5 people bringing buckets and no one bringing sponges.
Here is a list that Juliana got from the manager at the Shell's station. He's been very supportive, so kudos to him! Thanks!
Need to bring to Car Wash:
1. Attention getting signs to be held on the corner
2. 2 or 3 buckets
3. Sponges
4. Dove dish soap
5. 2 hoses
6. Hose nozzles
7. A hose “T”. See me on this
8. Chamois, no towels
It's also been suggested that we pre-sell tickets. So we'll need someone to design a ticket on the computer so we can print and cut up copies to give to people when they buy them.
Just comment to this post saying what you can bring. Everyone should be able to bring SOMETHING. If you can't bring anything, then you can make posters. I think we'll need about four or five. BIG letters with nice advertising techniques to make people want to pull up and let us wash their car. You know how to do it.
Thanks to all~ Look forward to your comments!
~Melissa
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