Dear :
Wow! Can you believe that 2008 is almost over. Here is a quick review of what A Rose of Thanks did in 2008 to make a difference for our troops.
January: Attended the GBK Production Golden Globes Gift Suite where we got celebrities such as Omarosa, Claudia Jordan, Shar Jackson, Corey Reynolds, Judd Nelson, Ross Thomas, Mo Collins and Zack Ward, sign a card for our troops. Omarosa called the charity she was representing on Celebrity Apprentice and introduced us. They asked for 300 cards to have at their upcoming event. The Writer's Guild of America West also took over 100 cards to the strike lines for the writers to personalize the day before the strike ended.
February: Monthly newsletter started going out. Also met Sarah Trexler of Concord, NC, who invited me to speak at her "We Can Make a Difference" club at her high school. She spearheaded the students to sign and personalize over 300 cards. Later in the month I drove out to California, stopping in Phoenix to drop off 200-300 cards to
Packages From Home.
March: I was out at Bear Rock Cafe, Carolina Mall, Concord, NC.
April: Made the crazy decision to move to California and stayed with a friend who started her own non profit called "
Dreams Can Come True". Jemma - you rock! She is also an awesome photographer. Jemma is heading to Cameroon, Africa to make dreams come true for an orphanage there. Should you wish to join her - please contact her at
[email protected] or visit her group and page on Facebook.
I also wrote an article on the city of La Quinta, CA for
LA's the Place. Thanks, Jane, for that opportunity. It appeared in the Travel Section.
May: I fell in love with animals all over again.
Elaine Hendrix invited us to have our cards in a gift bag for an event she was throwing for In Defense of Animals. The play, "Because They Have No Words" was amazing! I came up with a crazy idea: Let's create a card to be marketed and sold by A Rose of Thanks for our troops where people can sign their card from their pets. The profits raised from the sale would be split between A Rose of Thanks and In Defense of Animals.
E. Hanford Dole Elementary School, Salisbury, NC and Ben Franklin Elementary School in La Quinta, CA were personalizing cards. We assisted "Dreams Can Come True" in hosting a fundraising event at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.
June: An article was written on A Rose of Thanks for the Palm Springs local newspaper.
August: This was certainly a busy month for us. We added the
store to our website. I also dropped off 300 cards to my old high school's art department, who was, by coincidence, doing a patriotic art project for the semester, A Rose of Thanks was a great addition. I gave a ten minute presentation to the Salisbury TIPs Networking Group, that led to three speaking engagements. Met the Carolina Postal Credit Union through another connection (thanks Jerry) and they agreed to print 5000 cards for us in exchange for printing "Courtesy of Carolina Postal Credit Union" on the back of the card.
Attended the Launch Party for Lake Norman Magazine with Bridgette Wright of Prim Media Group (thanks Jason). We met some amazing people, like William Adair with Carolina Athletic Products. We now have A Rose of Thanks t-shirts! Another individual (who's card I've misplaced) introduced us to an event at JR Motorsports on Veterans Day weekend.
September: Attended the non profit career fair at UNCC, Charlotte, NC and learned a lot.
October: I happen to be a Katy Perry fan and I joined the forum on her website and met a girl who was flying into Charlotte to see Katy perform at the KISS 95.1 Gravediggers Ball (Hi Jamie!). I picked her up from the airport and was her chauffeur for the evening. In October, the forum was fourth in direct links to my website. At the Ball, we got over 100 cards for the troops.
Also had an on air
interview on the Ace and TJ Show on October 1. It went well except I said amazing nine times in 6:44 minutes! I was introduced to Artist and Angels Against Aids and they selected A Rose of Thanks to be the cover for their card at a presentation at UNCC on November 6, 2008. We also sent out the first blank cards, complete with crayons and markers from Rose Art, to the troops so that they could write back to their friends and family.
November: Started out with a bang! Veteran's Day weekend I had three different events going on at the same time: JR Motorsports, sponsored by the VA Hospital in Salisbury, NC; set up for nine days at Carolina Mall in Concord, NC and got over 1,000 cards personalized. This led to a short news clip on Channel 3 News; and at the Chick Fil-A in Concord, NC, got over 40 cards in 2.5 hours! Thanks, John and Patty, a connection from Facebrook through Jason Huddle.
December: Invited to participate in the Meineke Car Care Bowl Fan Fest activities. My friend, Jamie, from the Katy Perry forum in MI, is printing 500 cards for a Christmas Festival in Ada, MI. Also, the Junior Youth from St. James Catholic Church, Concord, NC did over 50 cards to send out (thanks Coach George).
