Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 2 weeks ago at 9:00 am. 0 comments
Once again, I’m happy to announce another worthy community partnership between the Tweet Divas and Garner’s only locally owned and operated newspaper, the Garner Citizen next month.
Meet the staff of the award-winning Garner Citizen, meet other area folks, raise money for a local rescue shelter, and have fun racing go-karts!
All attendees will receive 50% off go-kart rides ($10 instead of $20) and free head socks.
Speaking of the local animal rescue group, as we always do we will be raising money and awareness for a local charity and this time we’ve chosen Paw Prints Animal Rescue.
Paw Prints Animal Rescue, Inc. is an all volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the population of homeless cats, kittens, dogs and puppies. We are dedicated to finding forever homes for displaced or abandoned dogs and cats and educating the public about pet overpopulation and the benefits of spaying and neutering. Paw Prints Animal Rescue makes a lifetime commitment to each animal it rescues and places through adoption. We never want these animals to be homeless again. With your help homeless pets can continue to find their “forever” homes. Please join us in making a difference in these animal’s lives. You won’t be disappointed because Animals have a special way of leaving a paw print on your heart…. (from the folks at Paw Prints)
I know we usually raise awareness for charities dedicated to women’s causes but with the extreme temperatures we’ve been seeing in our area of late and the number of animals being rescued, this is one cause I felt we couldn’t ignore. The folks at Paw Prints do an outstanding job rescuing and adopting-out animals in need of loving homes.
Diva, Rachel Healy (Garner Citizen Web Editor) came to me asking if we’d like to join them for this unique summer time event and of course, I couldn’t decline. It’s open to all Divas (and is family-friendly) but please be sure to register soon as limited space is available.
So…get ready to RUMBLE with Garner Citizen staff members, fellow Divas & citizens, and raise much-needed funds for our furry friends. They’ll be raffle prizes, food, and a whole lotta FUN. Who’s with us?
I’ll be announcing another major partnership for the October Tweet Divas gathering soon and it will be another FUN one. So stay tuned!
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 1 month, 1 week ago at 9:00 am. 0 comments
One June 3rd the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina held it’s kick-off event to their Kids Summer Stock program – the Social Media Mixer – bringing together many Triangle-area social media aficionados and their Families. From bloggers to Tweeters to Facebook Fans, etc. we all came together to celebrate this amazing program, one that is so vital to our community.
Each Summer 250,000 some odd children who would otherwise receive 2 hot nutritious meals a day thanks to the free and reduced lunch programs at school don’t have that opportunity for nearly eight weeks. When school’s out for summer so goes the nutrition. Kids Summer Stock is a program that builds awareness, funds, & donations to help subsidize for those families.
Lisa Sullivan of Tweet Divas with Jen Newmeyerof the Food Bank of CENC
The Tweet Divas were a proud sponsor of the Social Media Mixer and it was a FANTASTIC time too!
Our chefs from The Healing Place prepared snacks from foods that Food Bank beneficiaries receive (and oh that sweet potato whatchamacallit was OUTSTANDING!).
Ed and Heba pose with attendee & Food Bank Rep, Christy Simmons
We had special guests in attendance, including Ed Brantley and Heba Salama from NBC’s The Biggest Loser who were available to talk about their journey, take pictures, and sign autographs with attendees.
And of course, what event wouldn’t be complete without prizes – TONS of them!
Another put her tickets in for up to 10 cellphones courtesy of Best Buy. She won 5 and you know what she did? She paid it forward by giving 2 away! The recipients were surprised and very grateful.
Divas Amanda and Jen
Jennifer Newmeyer of the Food Bank was the Lead Organizer for this event and she did an amazing job!
Thanks to ALL of our sponsors including, the Carolina Hurricanes Kids in Community Foundation, Whimsy Two, Treasure Trove Jewelry, Regal Cinemas, Author Sarah Dessen, and so many, many more. Thanks to the countless volunteers who gave their time to help with the various components of the evening, the staff at the Food Bank, and our two blogger sponsors – Motherhood and Me as well as Dirt and Noise.
The registration table filled with all kinds of goodies!
The Kids Summer Stock program continues throughout the month of June. For more information on events in the Central and Eastern part of North Carolina, see this link.
These kids need your help! If you’ve been thinking about contributing but haven’t had the time yet, please give what you can as the month winds down. It’s never too late to donate to this worthy cause!
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 9:24 am. 0 comments
Today is the day!
Below are the directions to the Mixer as forwarded to registered attendees last night. Tickets are still available! Click the link at the bottom to register. See you tonight!
Location: Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC, Raleigh Branch
3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC 27609
Directions: From 440 (inner beltline): Take the Wake Forest Road exit 10 (north). At the bottom of the ramp, turn left (north). Turn right onto St. Albans and bear left, go down 5 blocks make right onto Tarheel Drive. The Food Bank is on the left.
From 440 (outer beltline): Take the Wake Forest Road exit 10 (north). At the bottom of the ramp, turn right (north). Turn right onto St. Albans and then bear left, go down 5 blocks make right onto Tarheel Drive. The Food Bank is on the left.
From Atlantic Avenue (from downtown): Proceed north under the beltline. Turn left at the light onto Wolfpack Lane. Cross over the railroad tracks and the next right is Tarheel Drive. (Street may not be marked). The Food Bank is on the right about a mile and half.
From Atlantic Avenue (from North Raleigh): Follow Atlantic Avenue past Fed Ex, UPS and through the New Hope Church Road intersection. At the first intersection after Boy Scouts of America, turn right onto Wolfpack (no road sign), then go across the railroad tracks and turn right onto Tarheel Drive. The Food Bank is about a mile and half on the right.
From Highway 1 (Capital Blvd): Coming from the north, turn right onto Highwood Blvd. This becomes Wolfpack Lane after crossing Atlantic Avenue. Turn right on Tarheel Drive, which is the first right after the railroad tracks. Food Bank will be on the right about a mile and half.
Parking:
Look for our volunteer “Parking Director”. They will direct you to park on the street in front of the warehouse. Once slots get full, we will direct you to the warehouse lot across from the Food Bank.
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 1 month, 3 weeks ago at 10:37 am. 0 comments
We’ve been talking about it for over a month now and it’s finally here!
Tweet Divas is proud to sponsor the kick-off event for the 3rd annual Kids Summer Stock campaign.
In 2008, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina launched a food and funds drive called Kids Summer Stock. The purpose was to reverse the historical decrease in donations to the food bank at a time of the year when the need increases. More than 250,000 children across the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina’s 34-county service area who currently have access to the free and reduced meal program at school will soon be on summer break. This creates a deficit of millions of meals that are not available for these children. Kids Summer Stock has provided a combined total of 3 million meals to children and their families over the past two summers. The 2010 Kids Summer Stock Food and Funds Campaign kicks off at the main warehouse on Tarheel Drive in Raleigh on Thursday, June 3 with a Social Media Mixer. (Food Bank CENC Press Release, 5/28/2010)
We’ll have special guests in attendance. We’ll have opportunities for you to talk to current volunteers to learn all about why they do what they do. For the kids, we’ll have pictues with Souper Can and a lemonade stand, just to name a couple of the activities. There will be drawings for amazing prizes thanks to the Carolina Hurricanes, Adlerhost mountain cabin in Boone, Regal Cinemas, and several of our other sponsors.
But, it’s not all about that. It’s about raising awareness for this need. While the event is FREE, donations are welcomed. Who knows – you might help a child in your own backyard and for some of you, you won’t even know it.
Join us tomorrow night at the Food Bank of CENC headquarters on Tar Heel Drive in Raleigh from 6-8:30pm. It’s sure to be fun for the whole family!
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 2 months ago at 10:30 am. 0 comments
At our most recent Tweet Divas event, I had the chance to talk to Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina representative and fellow Diva about the importance of the Kids Summer Stock program and the upcoming Social Media Mixer on June 3rd (6-8:30pm). Take a look & listen to what she had to say:
Please come out to support your local Food Bank through this wonderful cause. Lots of GREAT prize give-aways (Carolina Hurricanes Memorabilia and a weekend getaway at Adlerhost mountain cabin near Boone NC to name a couple!), local celebrities (Ed Brantley and Heba Salama from The Biggest Loser), and pictures with Souper Can are just some of what you can look forward to at this kick-off event.
If you have any questions or need additional information, leave a comment here and we’ll see what we can do!
Ed and Heba have partnered with the Food Bank for their “Pound for Pound” Challenge continuing through June 10th. Here’s a short video from their announcement to that end:
So…now we have Adlerhost donating the GRAND PRIZE for that night, the Hurricanes donating a certified autographed hockey puck and other memorabilia, and local Biggest Loser celebs joining the cause. Will you be coming?
The Social Media Mixer hosted by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is the kick-off event for their Kids Summer Stock program to build awareness for the 250,000 children that go hungry in the summer months thanks to the lack of the two hot meals a day they receive with the free and reduced school lunch programs during the academic year.
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 2 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:38 pm. 0 comments
On June 3rd, 2010 from 6:00-8:30pm as the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina dives head first into the Triangle’s social media network, it won’t be taking the plunge alone. To help gain momentum and build awareness for their Kids Summer Stock program the Carolina Hurricanes have donated something extra special for that evening…and we can’t thank them enough!
Take a look at these:
Official Canes hockey puck signed by Cam Ward!
Canes T-shirt signed by the team!
And if that wasn’t enough the folks who own Adlerhost, a 3 bed/2 bath private mountain home located just 15 minutes from Boone, North Carolina have offered their cabin for a 3-night stay (restrictions apply) as the GRAND PRIZE for donations that evening.
Why are each of these organizations offering such amazing prizes? Simple. They believe in the cause.
The Social Media Mixer is the kick-off to the Kids Summer Stock June celebration, a whole month devoted to the awareness of the Kids Summer Stock program, a program that helps to provide food and other essential non-perishable items to nearly 250,000 families in Eastern North Carolina during the critical summer months.
Many children in our area miss out on three hot meals a day because the two they usually get are part of the free and reduced-lunch programs that are available during the school year. For nearly 60 days in the summer, these kids & their families have to make due with what they got and sometimes, it’s not much. The Food Bank helps those families and they need OUR support!
The Kids Summer Stock Social Media Mixer is just one of several events throughout the month of June but it’s the kick-off event. It is our hope that this event raises the awareness of this need through participation at the event itself as well as online promotions through such sites as Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere.
Blast off that link to everyone you know through the social media space & encourage others to participate in some way.
And on June 3rd, let’s show Eastern North Carolina how much the Triangle social media community rallies together in support of such an important cause as this!
Tweet Divas is a proud sponsor of this initiative.
Images courtesy of the Food Bank of CENC and Adlerhost.
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 2 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:46 am. 0 comments
With Tweet Divas 5 already planned and ready to go on May 11th, I am excited to announce our next Tweet Divas event.
In conjunction with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s Kids Summer Stock program and to help kick off a month of activities geared toward awareness of this particular need, Tweet Divas is acting Media Sponsor for the premier kick off event – Kids Summer Stock’s Social Media Mixer.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
6:00 to 8:30 pm
Food Bank Warehouse at Raleigh
3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC
Let’s all join together, mix and mingle. Bring the family too! There will be opportunities for tours of the facility, to hear from current volunteers, a lemonade stand and photos with Souper Can (for the kids).
The Kids Summer Stock program is extremely important as there are too many children in our community that go hungry during the summer months, children that normally see two hot meals a day during the school year thanks to the free & reduced lunch programs. Once school ends, their needs increase and with our current economic situation in this state as a whole, the need is even greater this year.
Help our children (perhaps even the children in your neighborhood). Plan to attend the Social Media Mixer, blog about it, Tweet it, post on Facebook. Help us bring awareness to this very worthy cause & kick off the summer right!
Posted by Lisa Sullivan, 5 months ago at 6:51 pm. 6 comments
Jean Schnaak talks with Helen Little and Melody Brown of Horne UMC
WOW. Where do I start?
Twenty professional women who engage on the social network Twitter, spent some time offline last night connecting & reconnecting with those they Tweet while at the same time raising much needed funds for a very worthy cause.
At only $5 to get in the door (at downtown Raleigh’s Hi5 Restaurant), $5 for menu items, $4 drink specials, and a little extra cash for those extra raffle tickets for a chance at some really terrific prizes, as of this morning, we were able to raise close to $400 for Horne United Methodist Church’s Ryan Epps Orphanage in Haiti.
Raffle items donated by our sponsors
I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our raffle sponsors as the items came in during the planning phase but even more overwhelmed by the generosity of these women in donating to the cause as they purchased their tickets to get in the door, as well as those extra raffle tickets (each lady received 1 free ticket as they signed in).
Helen Little tells her story to the Tweet Divas
I have no doubt that hearing Helen Little’s story about what Horne is doing for the Haitian people, what it was like to be on a bus traveling a dirt road as the Earthquake hit, what her group did after the initial Quake, what they continue to do, and what their plans are going forward, was of inspiration to those gals. BUT, I’ll bet it was more than that – it was listening to the passion this wonderful 79 year-old woman has for the Haitian people. Watching her eyes sparkle as she talked of the children they have helped or her mouth curl into a smile when she’d simply say, “I believe that once the children are educated leading to a leadership that becomes educated, there is hope for Haiti”. It still warms my heart as I type.
The Tweet Divas connecting & reconnecting
A very BIG THANK YOU to all who attended and supported this event!
@marciebarnes
@renewabelle (Jess Commins)
@erinedesign (Erin Conigliaro)
@KellyDuffort
@Ilinap (Ilina Ewen)
@LearnPleasure (Christine & Charlotte)
@jkennedy93 (Janet Kennedy)
@EllenLynch
@DeirdreReid
@Tcaldsimon (Tera Simon)
@KimberlyVC (Kimberly Van Cleve)
@Anj121 (Anjanette)
@Julierosemk (Julie)
@Rachealy (Rachel Healy)
@resume_writer (August Cohen)
@LovingHeartLLC (Jean Schnaak)
@Jennbw (Jennifer B Williams)
@swerves (Christy Meyer)
@CharityJen (Jen Newmeyer)
@bethlavin
and
Crystal Roberts
The money we raised will go a long way.
If you could not attend but are still interested in supporting the efforts in Haiti from a local standpoint, we encourage you to keep the dream of Horne United Methodist Church alive to rebuild their orphanage. Please visit their website – www.hornememorial.org. There you may contribute online through Pay Pal or via USPS (instructions are on the site).
I was asked if there was a list of the Tweet Divas. I’ve begun a list at http://www.twitter.com/tweetdivas/triangletweetdivas based on the current followers to the Twitter Tweet Divas account. If you’re not following us, please do, especially if you’re a Triangle Tweet Diva that has attended previous events. I can then add you to that list as well.
The next Tweet Divas event will be held in April. Stay tuned here for more!
@hi5nc for not only providing the location but also two $25 gift certificates (to be redeemed at a later date)
If your business would like to donate an item to this very worthy cause, please contact me at lisa@lisasullivanpr.com to arrange.
Been thinking about attending this unique ladies-only fundraiser, register here – http://tweetdivas4haiti.eventbrite.com. Even if you’re not on Twitter but are interested in networking with a terrific group of Triangle-area ladies, you are most welcome!
Thanks again to all of our sponsors. We appreciate ya!
See YOU on the 23rd at “Tweet Divas For Haiti”. Don’t miss it!
All images courtesy of Mountain Cabin NC, The Loving Heart Collection, the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield NC, and Lisa Sullivan.
Meet the staff of the award-winning Garner Citizen, meet other area folks, raise money for a local rescue shelter, and have fun racing go-karts!
