The Donut Hole, a local restaurant in Dickinson, is keeping a change jar at their till for us for the month of May! The Donut Hole has been a fantastic supporter of ours, the helped us greatly with National Mentoring Month as well. It is great to see a local business so willing to help us and get our name out to the community. The Donut Hole is extremely busy on a regular basis, and it would be nice for us to get our name out to a different group of people in our community.

I attended a webinar entitled, “The Basics of Online Social Networking for Nonprofits,” presented by Firespring, a marketing company. The webinar talked about viable websites and using various social media outlets to market a nonprofit. The presenter emphasized not building an entire presence on one outlet like Facebook, but using many social media sites. Firespring talked about how to most effectively use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and Pinterest. While recognizing using all of these sites may take some time, they emphasized that it will be worth it to use many social media sites and to keep them updated to get people actively engaged in your non-profit.

A Chocolate Affair is approaching and I have been working on getting last minute details for that. We need chef information on our nine chefs, including their business history and what they will be making for the event. We will be putting an ad in the Dickinson Press about the event, advertising the chefs. I have been sending out letters and emails asking chefs for their information, luckily many of our chefs have attended in previous years, so we have their info. Unfortunately, many of the chefs and restaurants are extremely busy here in Dickinson, so getting in touch with them is not the easiest thing to do.  Most everything else is ready for the event, so now we are just waiting for the day!

The 2^nd Annual Kids Health and Safety Fair and the 4^th Annual Prevent Child Abuse Walk were held on Thursday in the Dickinson Rec Center. They were hosted by the Southwest District Health Unit, the Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities and the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Committee. We had a booth at the fair, which included an informational table and also a bean bag toss game and prizes for the attendees of the fair. I was able to recruit volunteers for most of the event, but not all of it. I was there for set up and the last two hours, so unable to see how busy (or not busy) it was for the entire time. My volunteers told me that the traffic was pretty steady, and it seemed to stay steady for the first hour I was there, and then slowed down by 6pm. The fair was held from 3 pm to 7 pm, while the walk was at 6pm. The fair had many booths, and I found it to be a great event for children. The attendance could have been greater though, and maybe if the event was held earlier in the day so that classes or schools could attend, it would have been more beneficial for the community.