Mobilization Efforts!

I've spent the past week considering my main platform issue and have chosen that raising awareness and funds for Operation Smile would be the most fulfilling for me given how cleft lip and palate touches my life personally (see 8/21 posts).

So far, I've initiated some planning for a charity golf tournament in April 2010, linked Operation Smile to my Facebook profile (subsequently inviting 300 friends to join the cause and establishing an additional $500 pledge in addition to my original OneSmile page's honorary fund), and have spoken with my school's FBLA advisor about pitching Operation Smile to her members as the beneficiary for our staff's annual Casual for a Cause fund. I've also very thankfully been put in touch with Dena Liston, an executive at Operation Smile headquarters, and she is having the donor relations team send me a grassroots organizing kit. I have many other ideas, as well, and am looking to partner with local attractions like The Promenade Shops in order to organize events like benefit shopping.

Finally, I've also purchased the feature film Smile, a story based on a student volunteer's experience on a medical mission, as well as the children's book The Smile That Went Around the World, which shares the message of a simple smile's impact in making someone's day. I hope to use these two items to help raise awareness during the events I'm planning, as well as to provide more information for potential partners in organizing these events. More details on where to purchase these items can be found here.

If anyone has any additional ideas for mobilizing my efforts or wishes to partner with me in organizing an event, please feel free to contact me...I would love to hear from you!

http://support.operationsmile.org/goto/katemack