Creating a Memory in PR

Last Tuesday my PR Admin. class created a beautiful and memorable night for the Relay For Life Kick-off.  The theme for the event was 'Celebrate A Memory' which was based off of the American Cancer Society's theme for the year, 'Celebrating another Birthday.'   The planning for the event was a long process that required attention to detail, meaning and creativity. 

We planned this event with no budget for a 100 plus people.  To create some money to work with each member of the class decided to donate 5 dollars.  We were also able to get a 100 grant from The GIVE Center.  Thanks to Brooke and her connections we were able to get 90% of the food donated to the event.  The only portion of the food that was not donated were the cupcakes.  We had planned on getting those donated by another class, but that fell through when the day of the event we only received 24 of the 100 needed cupcakes for the event.  We ended up having to purchase the cupcakes last minute which ended up working out just as well.  The 'cupcake crisis' was a learning experience on how communication between parties should be constant especially when donations and volunteer efforts are being made.  The best way to learn how to handle a crisis is by experience.  

Besides the food, the decorations were impeccable and brought the event to life.  A big thanks goes to the decoration committee for painting boxes and banners, and tying a million ribbons!  We decided to go with a purple, black, and white theme to honor the the colors of Relay For Life and to make a classy event.  The venue looked amazing fully decorated especially with the staff (our class) dressed in purple, black and white.  

The best part of the event (in my opinion) was the slide show.  A special thanks goes to Keri and Andrea for putting together a very moving and touching slide show!  To expand the slideshow concept to the decor we decided to put poster-sized pictures of the cancer survivors on the wall.  Thanks to a donation of time and resources from my dad we were able to give the survivors these pictures so they can remember and celebrate a memory.

Through all of these donations of time, resources and money we were able to pull together this wonderful evening for cancer survivors and those involved with Relay For Life.  This event was rewarding and I hope that I will get to work on another event that is just as rewarding in the future.