As many of you and anyone who has ever met me knows, I have friends for 2 main reasons. School projects and UNC Dance Marathon. My popularity really skyrocketed this year when I made the Carolina For The Kids Foundation executive board and overnight 13 people had to be my friend for a whole year. For this reason alone I would suggest any high school senior select their college based on the dance marathon program at that school. It's funny because you think I'm kidding but I'm not even a little bit joking.
I have had the honor of knowing and working with 13 of the most driven and caring people I have ever met this year and it will be a privilege to stand beside them at 8:00 PM, Saturday, March 21st. It is my pleasure to introduce you to the 2015 Carolina For The Kids Executive Board, 13 of my favorite people. Are we humans, or are we dancers?
Executive Director - Evan
The Conductor
If you've ever been in the Pope Room you know that the Exec Director's main role is to "meet with some of us" each week. Evan has to keep us all accountable, on task, and hardest of all, relatively quiet during meetings. He also gets at least 10 questions a day from me alone. 50% of those are me asking him if I can be excused to go to the bathroom.
Campus Fundraising - Kari
The Hostess
The CampFun chair is our main Greek life liaison and Kari has set me up with so many benefit nights this year. I will take any excuse possible to go to dinner with friends instead of eating a hot pocket alone. Thanks to all of the bar nights Kari organized, instead of spending Friday nights alone watching Friends reruns, I spend Friday nights out with real life friends and push my wallowing in self pity back to Saturday. Fun fact: CFTK benefit nights are a great way to ask guys out because they pretend it's for charity and you pretend it's leading to a proposal.
Community Outreach - Meagan
The Teacher
Meagan organizes mini-marathons at local (and some not-so local) elementary, middle and high schools. She also came up with a Vacation Bible School push that was totally genius and works on several other local events. CommOut organizes fundraiser FTK trees in the winter and gives tours of the marathon to visitors interested in learning more about everything going on. I have a feeling my grandma will be all over that. And I would be too if it meant I got to hang out with Meagan more.
Corporate Marketing - Christina
The Networker
Christina, or Tina as we like to call her, asks corporations, small businesses, sponsors, restaurants, really anyone we can think of for money. CoMa writes all of our grant applications and organizes sponsors for Kilometers For The Kids and the marathon. Keeping the sponsors happy and the money flowing is what CoMa does best. Tina also passes on to me all of the sponsors who offer in-kind donations instead of monetary, which makes my life easier.
Donor Development - Beth
The Mailman
Beth could probably stuff envelopes in her sleep at this point because DD organizes all of our letter pushes where we send out letters on behalf of committee members and dancers. She conquered mail merge! And leaky stamps! Beth is in charge of keeping the alumni in the loop and connected to our organization. Beth is also the unofficial environmental chair and holds an alumni brunch. Who doesn't love brunch?
Entertainment - Heather
The DJ
What you might not know about Heather is that she is the best dancer I have ever seen. Give her a dance floor, a beat and get out of the way. So it makes sense that she is in charge of keeping dancers hype by scheduling DJs and entertainment during the marathon. Do you know how hard it is to keep 2,000 people entertained for 24 hours? I can't keep myself entertained for more than 5 minutes without a book or television. And not once this year has Heather yelled "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" I don't know how she does it. Heather is also the keeper of the 5x5, a simple spreadsheet that has EVERY 5 MINUTES OF THE MARATHON SCHEDULED. No pressure.
Event Donations - Sonya
The Giver
Sonya completely organized our Benefit Reception. By herself. Cause she's a rockstar. EvDo is responsible for soliciting for all of the great items we auction off at the BR and dancer incentives. So basically Sonya works to give really awesome gifts, that you have to buy or raise money for, but still. Fun fact: This one time, we tried to raise $25,000 in 25 hours and Chelsea and I had $0 donated until Sonya came and it became 25K in 25 minutes ft. Sonya cause she rocks.
Finance - Landon
The Trick or Treater
Landon's area of expertise is a subject my father would say I am quite well-versed in...asking people for money. Landon pays the bills, keeping a roof over our heads and he goes to the bank almost as often as I go to Victoria's Secret, except he is on actual CFTK business. Landon coordinates all of our cannings, which are a lot like selling Girl Scout cookies door to door except without any cookies.
Fundraising Projects - Chelsea
The Designer
Chelsea is the person I go to when I start to think that the DM section of my closet isn't big enough. FundProj designs all of the merchandise we sell and coordinates dancer fundraisers like bake sales and date auctions. Unfortunately I am not very helpful to Chelsea because I lack what some would call "perspective" aka I fully admit that I will buy anything that says "CFTK" "UNCDM" "FTK" and therefore estimating sales is not my forte.
Hospital - Shakeia
The Intermediary
Shak works directly with all of the amazing families we serve. She dedicates every Tuesday afternoon to Parent's Night Out, where we serve meals at the hospital. Shakeia is responsible for communicating with families and Kid Co-Captains. The role Shak fills is particular important because she is around cute kids all the time and has to maintain her composure instead of asking to hold them all. I could never do it.
Morale and Recruitment - Jean-Luc
The Recruiter
The Morale chair has had the distinct pleasure of always being the weirdest member of Exec...until this year. Even though JL isn't as weird as I am, I like to think I'm rubbing off on him. Morale choreographs our pit dance, marathon line dance and all sorts of other shenanigans like dredging up Facebook photos from 2005. Keeping dancers happy is a full-time job and JL does a great job!
Operations - Logan
The Planner
Logan's job is to us his dad voice to get things done. He deals with the physical logistics of putting on the marathon, all those grown up-y things that give me a headache like reservations and rentals and scheduling and I already give up. Ops also plans our annual Kilometers For The Kids race event which I have had the pleasure of volunteering at for 3 years now because my only other option was to run it. Ha.
Publicity - Brendan
The Social Media Star
Pub is a small army that produces our newsletters, manages our website, produces graphics, deals with the press I'm constantly trying to escape, and my personal favorite, represents us on social media! It was a long battle getting our official accounts to follow me back but 4 years later and I have officially arrived. I even get hit with the occasional retweet. Brendan keeps all this in motion because DM, much like Miley, can't stop won't stop.
Supply and Logistics - Rachel
The Caterer
I'm in charge of all food at the marathon, which will come as a surprise to those of you who read the Hong KONG Buffet expose piece I did a few months ago. Additionally, my idea of a vegetarian option is french fries and cookie dough, so I couldn't have done anything without my fabulous subchairs. My main role is to solicit, or ask people to give me things for free. Unfortunately, trying to get the best deals FTK has not made me any more frugal in the real world.
Stay tuned next week for a marathon recap and SHOUTOUTS!
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