So Many Donations!

I spent my day canvasing last friday, I received many no's. But, I also received a good number of yes's. Knowing we are trying to avoid gift cards I tried to push towards other things, but if a gift card was all they were willing to give I didn't say no. So in all I have a $10 gift card to Cy's Swimwear, a $50 gift card to a boutique that not only sells merchandise but also does tanning and waxing, a pair of sun glasses, a silent auction alcohol (yet to be determined what kind), and 4 tickets to an Orioles game (10th row behind the O's dugout). I also spoke to a few companies that needed to discuss with the owner before they could give me any final answer, there were a few food donations that seemed very promising! I will be following up with these businesses later in the week.

As well as canvasing I also contacted a local printing company about our brochures, she is quoting the final price for us and is looking into 100% recycled paper.

Community Unite!

On Thursday Rachel and I attended the CBIA meeting, we got a chance to speak to the community members about the event. Many had reservations about transportation to the event, thankfully Jason Reed was there to explain that we are getting a school bus to shuttle community members to the event and back. We also learned that the community center as well as the park surrounding it is now under video surveillance, money for the cameras was donated by CSX. CSX also funds the GED program at the community center.

During the crime statistics report one of the police officers explained that car thefts were occurring in the area on late model cars, and to report any suspicious activity to police immediately. Many were concerned about ending this trend and the officer explained that there was a good chance it wouldn't stop, but if people report it they will be more likely to move away from the neighborhood and do their business elsewhere.

The police officer also announced that their station is getting remodeled and they are asking for volunteers to help clear out the station of all the old stuff. The days are April 16th and 17th from 8am to 4pm. Food and drinks will be provided. The address is 10 Cherry Hill Road.

Truck traffic was a concerning issue and they announced that tolls for trucks on 895 has dropped from $24 to $12. They are planning on returning Pennington back to a 2-way street so that truck traffic will be completely eliminated within the town. If this is to occur the residents would like to have another crossing guard to assure their children's safety walking to and from school.

We were also told that Habitat for Humanity is working in Baybrook to help lower the number of abandoned homes in the area.

I also talked with Cailin Benson from the Council President's office and have her number should we need to contact her. Rachel and I also spoke with Pat Wills about working through her to get our printing done.

So Many Ask's, So Little Time

As a committee we need to work on getting together the green space brochure and the program booklet.  We have separated the work out, I am working on putting together the program. I will need an introduction, stories, ads, possibly even images of art. Once these become available I will be able to better estimate how many pages the booklet will be.

I sent out a good number of asks, I have been looking up more businesses that were not on the list and begun to contact them. A couple of the businesses that I was supposed to contact were not allowing me to e-mail them, it immediately sent my message back announcing it was viewed as spam. These businesses I will contact either by phone or in person. For those that I have contacted I am hoping for a quick response, if not I will be doing follow ups.

Scheduling and Planning

I have begun to work out a schedule for the event, who will be doing what when? I need some information about the plan for the evening; what time will bands be performing, how long will the sets be, do we want to limit the time on the silent auction, etc. For now though I have only received responses from 11 classmates about their job preferences, I would like to have all of them before I get started but if need be I can just put them anywhere.

I'm still thinking on the asks, because I would like to know if we are strictly sticking with local businesses, Baltimore City based businesses or are we spanning out to the surrounding county as well. If county is included I have a couple ideas as where to start. We need to get solidified in our concepts a little more before we start at it.

Chit-Chat with Marc

The dinner at Tavern on the Hill gave us a chance to talk with Marc Steiner. I found this to be incredibly helpful, we were able to not only bounce ideas about the radio show off other students, but we were able to get direct feedback from Marc. We were able to arrive at a couple different ideas, but they need to be developed. The meeting on April 5th should help to clear things up even further.

I have begun to dig into my own resources to get started on my archival organization i will be doing this semester. The hardest part so far has been trying to find a basic outline that everything fits into. I hope once I get Nicole's files things will start to fall into place.