I can finally relax...sort of

I had decided to get involved with the "Buy a Bag" program being run by The Food Bank of South Jersey. They are running a campaign to get groups to donate a $1 for the purchase of 7 lbs. of food. I though this would be a great thing to bring to work. I work with a teriffic group of people who often do things like this and we work for a company generous enough to match gifts over $25 up to $2,500 per year. I start a month ago asking a co-worker how the heck to do this chinese action idea since I've never done one. A girl that sits near me agrees to help. We started putting things in Lotus Notes about a month ago asking for any "re-gift" items that someone might want to donate to up the interest. On Monday I sent a memo explaining the Auction and gave the date. Do you know the next day without letting me know my co-worker decides to tell people instead of $1 per ticket it was 3 for a $1. I was really upset by this because people were gladly giving $1 per ticket and that would cut into what we raised. Being the nonconfrontational person I am I really didn't know how to handle it. With the advice of another co-worker I did go for a happy medium and felt a lot better-also avoiding an incident that might have taken away from the cause. We didn't get a lot of responses for items, so between the two of us we actually came up with an amazing amount of items. I make jewelry so I got some nice sets done (earrings/necklace, etc) as well as an ID holder with glass beads. I brought a Pat Croce and Dan Brown book, a Dan Brown Audio Book (Digital Fortress was awesome!), a vinegar dipping set and a cosmetic bag. Dawn brought an Igloo backpack with a 6-pack of Hawaiian Punch, a Crichton Book w/ a 5$ Border gift card, 2 bottles of new perfume and a wrapped candle with a pretty note pad. A friend of ours also gave us a really nice candle holder set. Well okay we have lots of stuff...time to get this rolling. Our office has fundraisers for the Christmas party all year and today was supposed to be "Salad Day", so we thought (on Wednesday) that it would be a perfect mix. Well..."Salad Day" got cancelled and I worked till 9pm last night and was due back in at 9am this morning. So I'm online taking calls and it was BUSY. I had to set the cubicle up, number every item, make the sheets and pass them out...between phone calls. The girl that is helping me doesn't get in until 1pm. I even stayed late and hung posters all over the building for other departments to see and guilted all the supervisors into donating (I love doing that!). I am so BUSHED! It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of people who want to add items, but...my biggest lesson was how not to do things next time! I also learned that if I ask someone to help me with something I cannot let them run all over me....hey niceness and walk on me are often confused :) I think this will be a really positive campaign based on the responses we have gotten thus far..as well as almost hitting the $50 mark withing a couple of hours on the first day! Yippee. I will be doing the same begging at my church and feel a lot more prepared...my next challenge is to approach some local businesses with a proposal for them to donate gift cards, etc and prove to them how wonderful it will make them look to the local community. I plan over the weekend, on putting some type of flyer together and maybe a sample of a handout with the business names as sponsors...I love a challenge! My old boss told me there are no problems, just opportunities! I agree!