Dane Low

This young college student’s passion for educating kids in the developing world is contagious. This video speaks to the impact and power that ONE person can generate. He’s already raised more than $4000 for Room to Read with plans to raise enough to build a school in Vietnam.



Here's the Facebook link:
Let's Fund a Library Through our Facebook Friends

alex from ft collins emailed saying the raffle sounds good but that they'd like to keep with their "green/recycled" theme and do we think we could get something that fits that?
which i think is a great idea but i am completely stumped as to what to have for a prize! if only we could get a prius...

this weekend i'm going to email fabric lab and polka dot and then tuesday i'm going to go to emily griffith.
baby steps.

it's a week from the last meeting and i have yet to accomplish anything on my to-do list. although ashley and i did go into fabric lab to try to talk to the owner but she wasn't there.
i supppose this is typical of me though, always waiting until the last minute. probably not the best idea.

oriental theater

estefania emailed to say that the Oriental Theater is open on September 20th and it's ours if we want it. at the meeting we were discussing another place by Invesco that might be a little bigger so we may look in to that as well but it's nice to know we have a place regardless!

CSU

CSU is open to the idea of a raffle as an additional fund-raising effort. alex replied saying they had even been thinking that themselves but how would it work?
i think it would be best if we at Room to Read got the raffle item donated and then we sold the tickets at our little information table.
yes?
yes.

meeting update

the meeting last night went well. there wasn't anyone there from the event planning part of the committee so we focused on the fashion show, sponsorships and art donation. we all left with to do lists to be completed by the next meeting.

this is mine:
-contact the following local stores about collaborating on fashion show:
fancy tiger
polka dot
fabric lab
-also contact emily griffith opportunity school about possibly having their students create fashions

sort of unrelated to this specific event we also decided that we could pull together a raffle for the CSU Recycled Fashion show so i have to contact Alex, their president, about that.

polly told us that her aunt already has a painting, a photograph and a quilt donated! i need to get pictures and artist info on them so i can post it here.

meeting tonight...

there will be 5 of us at the meeting tonight, little smaller than last time but that's ok since i know we won't have many updates.
my agenda is to bring up the Fashion Group International question about how to help us raise more money. i know that we plan to have people go to the fashion show, sort of have a presence there, and that would probably help a bit to get general Room to Read donations.
the other thing i want to bring up is that my friend eric sort of volunteered to do a live painting that we could then auction at the end of the event. he said he'd "maybe" do it so i just have to turn his maybe into a yes.
you can see his art here...Buckner

John Wood at CU Boulder!

From Polly, our chapter leader:

Chris and I are just back from the four day Chapter Leader’s Conference at RtR’s offices in CA. It was simply a spectacular event and we are both so enthused about what we learned and saw. While we were there, John Wood told us that he will give the commencement address at CU Boulder on May 9th. Wow!!!

meeting

thursday we are having a Literacy by Designers meeting at susie's office again. now that we pushed the date back i don't think we'll have that much to talk about but i want us to continue to get together to keep our momentum going.
i do need ideas from the group about how we can make a little more money from the CSU Fashion Group International recycled fashion show where they've chosen us as the beneficiary. alex, the president of the group, emailed asking for ideas and i told her i'd bring it up with the larger group to see what we can come up with. i'm sure susie will have some good ideas, she's very creative in that realm.

not much going on the fundraising world right now...well not mine anyway! we have a Literacy by Designers meeting next thursday and that's really all that's going on.
so exciting....

volunteer for a day!

I received this email on Friday from the Mentor program that I'm in, Metro Denver Partners. Ashley and I will be there!
(here's the link to the volunteer app: http://rt.civicore.com/VolunteerApp)


I am working with Rebuilding Together (a nonprofit organization) that twice a year has volunteers work on neighborhood homes (like Habitat for Humanity). On Saturday, April 26th we will be working on the house of the child I mentor, Sharey Blackwell. Ethel Blackwell is 78 years old and currently has custody of 4 of her 6 great grandchildren (obviously Sharey being one of the 4 children). The children were going to be placed in children’s services several years ago and she took custody of her great grandchildren and is bringing them up in her home. The home needs a lot of cosmetic repair (mostly painting inside and out) and Rebuilding Together has accepted her house for one of this spring’s projects. I need to pull together approximately 20-25 volunteers to help on this project. It is only for one day and is usually less than 8 hours. I will be the House Captain on this project and will have a Skilled Captain to work on any major repairs that will be done on the home. The home is located near 26th and Downing not far from downtown.

I have attached the link below if you would like to sign up as a volunteer and help me complete this project in one day. The project sponsor for this house is the Carson Family Foundation which you can locate on the drop down menu on the volunteer application. You can also contact me if you have any questions as I have been on a few teams prior to this upcoming project. I really could use all the help I can get. If you do sign up on the site below, please make sure to include my name or Ethel Blackwell’s in order to be assigned to the proper house. If you wish to go to their website it is www.rebuildingdenver.org.

I have sent this on to a few people who I thought may know of additional helpers if you can forward. The more volunteers – the faster the project will be completed. Rebuilding Together provides you breakfast and lunch and the satisfaction of helping someone in need. Thanks.

meeting recap

at our meeting last night we spent a lot of time talking about how we can recruit more members to the core group. two ideas i really like are having a more casual open happy hour type event to invite interested people to and the other is to tap into the book club arena.
we decided to try hosting a happy hour the first thursday in may (5/2) and we're going to try to get somewhere in the highlands to host it, maybe lola or forest room 5.
the book club thing is a bit more daunting because it seems like we need a whole other group of people to be working on it. maybe we can find some book club volunteers at the happy hour.

so....

since the event has been moved the planning has slowed way down, obviously. i'm lacking things to post in this blog! i need some ideas. i was thinking i could use it to do local artist profiles but really, i only know about 5 so that would only take up one week. any other ideas?

we were scheduled to have the event may 17th but decided to move it to september. last week i found out that there is an event that will be similar at the oriental theater on may 10th so now i am really glad we are moving it.
thursday we have our executive committee meeting and that's when i'll be telling them all we're moving it. luckily susie and polly will be there too to back me up!