You are seated in Pauley Pavilion, the lights go down, in front of you bright flashes are seen coming from the stage, you hear gun fire. As the lights slowly go up on stage you see 7 Union soldiers facing 7 Conferate soldiers in a battle scene. The lights begin to fade on this scene and as the spotlight focuses on stage right a celebrity singer walks on stage singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic. To the left of the stage a local children's choir is illuminated accompanying this singer. For the next 1 hour and 20 minutes you are delightfully entertained by singers, choirs, an orchestra, a Dixie Land Band, a Barber Shop Quartet, etc., all performing music from the Civil War era. As the music fades you hear the voice of our celebrity narrator introduce President Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln is played by a Kiwanian, Dr. Gene Griessman. Dr. Griessman wrote a one man play, "An Evening with Mr. Lincoln" and has performed at the Lincoln Memorial, Fords Theatre, the Georgia Dome, and many other gatherings in the last few years. He is a well respected author, motivator, lecturer, and Kiwanian. The audience will be spell bound with his performance. Dr. Griessman is donating his time and talent for this evening. All performers will be donating their time.
At the heart of this project is all that makes Kiwanis what we are. The Co-Chairs for each committee planning this evening will be a Kiwanian and a Circle K member. The committees consist of Kiwanians, Circle K, and Key Club members, all working side by side. One purpose of this design is to have a mentoring program begin. As an example the Finance Committee will be chaired by a CPA and a Circle K student that is majoring in either econ., accounting, or business. This way the Circle K members will learn just how involved a project can be, what legal and financial problems can arise and how to handle these. We are also recruiting from the entertainment industry to further teach our youth how to put together a professional musical. A company has agreed to supervise local college and high school students with setting up/running of the sound and lighting equipment. All stage hands, lighting & sound, and performers will be from local schools, churches and civic groups. The celebrities will all be there so that we can use their names in radio, TV, and newspaper advertising to pull in a large crowd. With all hands pitching in we will sell 12,000 tickets, yes this is a great event.
To further help with advertising we are holding a poster design contest. All Circle K and Key Club members are eligible. The student that has designed the winning poster will receive a cash award of between $500 and $1,000. This design will also be used for the cover of our program. We also have a second contest for all elementary school children. Each child will draw a picture depicting Lincoln and/or the Civil War. Three winners from each school will be selected and awarded two tickets to the event. Guess what the children's family may need to purchase more tickets so that they can see their childs picture displayed in Pauley Pavilion, a part of our decoration for the evening. All winning drawings will be displayed all over Pauley Pavilion. (Public Interest)
How do we sell 12,000 tickets? Besides all the normal avenues through Pauley Pavilion and advertising, we will have a contest. Each Kiwanis Club, Circle K Club and Key Club will receive tickets to sell. The students will all be competing for over 100 gifts that will be donated and given out to the top selling students, fun competition. How about the winning Kiwanis Club President receiving an award and the losing Kiwanis Club President a pie in the face.
So far we have hands helping hands helping hands. It doesn't stop here.
Everyone in the Kiwanis family is being asked to help out. We need: celebrities to perform or make an appearance, corporate sponsors to: donate funds to underwrite the costs of this event, donating prizes for the ticket sales, and donating funds to IDD. Membership drive. All Kiwanis, Circle K, and Key Clubs are always trying to recruit new members. Well this project will definitely get us a tremendous amount of positive publicity. As we each speak to companies for underwriting this event we will also have an opportunity to explain about Kiwanis, thus new members.
We are currently speaking with several advertising agencies and publicists to assure professional and wide spread exposure of this event. Advertising firms can also be of tremendous help in securing corporate sponsors. With professional advertising we can not fail.
Now for the bonus, as you can see the Kiwanis family will receive a tremendous benefit from this project, and IDD will receive poorly needed funds. With everyone working in the right direction, we can give 100% of the ticket sales profits to IDD, at least $75,000.00. IDD will also receive much needed publicity to eliminate this disorder.
Get involved in solving a health problem that effects 30% of the world's population. Sign up now on the various committees, if you can't make it to our next meeting on the 13th of July, sign up any way and tell us how you can help.
We need your hands to make this work. If you are one of those that have no time available, let me request this. If you normally spend one hour a day for lunch, give up one lunch a week, or a month to help us out. The children affected by IDD deserve the same quality of life you or I have. I am astounded at the fact that we have the cure yet it is taking so long to raise the funds needed to change and save lives. IDD may not be as popular to support as some other disorders, yet with IDD we have the cure. So give us a call, send us your e-mail and help make a child smile.