Toys For Shots

Last Minute Notes

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 11:49:00 -0500

The day has finally arrived and I am so excited to see all of you tonight at Toys for Shots. I wanted to take a second and send out a couple of reminders.

There will be 2 bars at the venue tonight but they are both cash bars so please bring cash with you. If you do not have cash or run out there is an ATM inside of powerhouse.
There will be food at the event tonight but it is a good idea to have something to eat before you come to the event. We will have pizza, wings, veggies, chips and dessert. The hot food will start coming out around 9 and will keep coming out until we run out.
People keep asking me what the attire for the night will be. It is a casual event but everyone likes to have a reason to come dressed up so use it tonight. Ladies, you won't be the only one in a dress and fellas you won't be the only one in a tie so dress to impress tonight!
You can park on the street outside of the powerhouse for free but there is a $6.00 fee to park in the main lot.
We will have coat check this year so feel free to wear a coat and check it at the door.
Tell your friends!

Thank you all so much for your support! We are doing something pretty special tonight and we are helping people right in our backyards.

Car care basket donated by Royalton Automotive

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:51:00 -0500

I wanted to take a second to thank my friend Jennie Waler and Royalton Automotive for donating a car care package. This is another basket that you will be able to buy a raffle ticket for Saturday night.

Cleaning Supplies (Car Wash, Wax, Sponge, Wheel Cleaner & Towel)
VIP Savings Program ($458.00 Value) that includes:
- 4 Oil Changes
- 2 Tire Rotations
- A Free Tow
- "Peace of Mind" Comprehensive Inspection
- Wheel Alignment
- Tire Repair
- Set of the Rain-X Latitude Wiper Blades and Aquapel Treatment
- Free A/C Inspection
- $30.00 off Total Fluid Flush Package
- $40.00 off Brake Service

Dress to impress Saturday night

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:39:00 -0500

I have a ton of people asking me what they should be wearing for the evening so I thought I would take a second to address it. This is a Christmas party at a very nice venue that usually holds weddings, dress to impress people. Ladies - You will not be the only one in a dress so if you need an excuse to wear one, you have it. Fellas - It wont hurt you to throw on some dress shoes, a sweater and yes maybe even a tie. The point I am trying to make is that a lot of people will be dressed up so why not do the same and enjoy all of the head turns Saturday night. We will have a photographer on hand taking pictures so I expect to see a lot of people looking sharp in those pictures.

Ice Cube Limited Edition Print

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:39:00 -0500

Last night I found out that a friend was donating a limited edition print to our raffle. Below is an image of the print, description of the piece and a video describing the inspiration for it. This is truly a one of kind item and I believe a lot of people are going to want to win this one. You can learn more about this piece at RareInk. See you all Saturday night!

Artist Kerry Laster creates a striking tribute to the power of Ice Cube's lyrics with this portrait titled Face The Music. Limited to only 75 pieces, this large horizontal 24'' by 36'' fine art print features Ice Cube's face composed of some of his most powerful song titles and lyrics. The background of the piece features a montage of all of Ice Cube's albums. Ice Cube has uniquely applied his handprint in yellow paint to each print. The piece has also been hand signed by Ice Cube with a silver paint pen and artist Kerry Laster in pencil. Additionally, the artwork has been embossed with the RareInk logo, individually hand-numbered in pencil, and affixed with an anti-counterfeit security label on the back of the print in order to protect the collectibility of your print for years to come. Your unique piece of art will come professionally wrapped in acid-free paper and housed in our special RareInk-branded gift packaging tube, protected within an outer mailing box, making sure your print and the tube arrive in pristine condition. Your package also includes a Certificate of Authenticity, noting the edition size, your individual edition number, and further details regarding the printing of the artwork. Included with your purchase is a DVD featuring Cube applying his handprint and signing the artwork. To view this footage, click on the View Signing Video link toward the top of the page.

$10 cover without a toy

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:33:00 -0500

As you may know the cover charge for the event is 1 or more unwrapped toys. If for whatever reason you can't bring a toy you can still attend the event. Without a toy the cover charge is ten dollars and with that you will receive 2 drink tickets. Please remember we are trying to raise toys for the Toys For Tots foundation so we encourage you to bring a toy. I can't wait to see you all Saturday night!

Cash bars

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:34:00 -0500

I had a meeting last night to finalize some of the details for this years event. We are going to have 2 bars this year and they will be located at opposite ends of the venue. This will help minimize the lines but both bars will be cash bars only so please bring cash. If you don't have any cash on you there will be an ATM in the powerhouse. The cash bars will have the following available:

Bourban - Jack Daniels
Gin - Tanqueray
Vodka - Smirnoff
Rum - Bicardi Silver
Blend - Canadian Club
Scotch - Dewar's White Label
Tequila - Cuervo Especial
Peach Schnapps - Peachtree
Amaretto - Amarito
Brandy - Christian Brothers
Kahlua

Domestic Beer
Budweiser
Bud Light
O'Douls
House Wine
Cabernet Sauvignon
Chardonnay
Pinot Grigio

I really want to be clear here, these are cash bars only. Debit/Credit cards will not be accepted so please bring cash.

Toys For Shots Adobe baskets

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:12:00 -0500

My friend Todd Sharp was extremely generous in donating a PC & Mac version of Adobe Master Collection. Thanks to Liz I will have the media as well so I thought this would be a great chance to create 2 Adobe baskets for the event. We will have a PC + Mac Adobe basket and we would like to put some other items in there as well.

This is where all of my out of town friends can help out. If you have anything that you think would fit into these baskets (Adobe,PC,Mac,Computer,Geek,etc) and can ship it to me I would be so thankful. The raffle is how we generate income to keep this wonderful event going each year. This will be a nice gift for anyone and I really think these will end up getting the most raffle tickets. Please let me know if you have anything you can donate and I will contact you about shipping the items out. If you can attend the event we would of course love to have you and you could be taking home one of these awesome baskets. Thank you!

We are 30 days away

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:02:00 -0500

It is hard to believe but we are just 30 days away from the 4th Annual Toys For Shots. Right now we are sitting at 115 RSVPs so we still have a ton of work to do to hit our goals. If you are interested in helping out with the event please read this post.

As we get closer, 2 needs really stand out to me. We need more volunteers for the night of the event. We are looking for people to run coat check, the front desk and to help with raffle ticket sales. This will not be an all night commitment as we plan to rotate volunteers in and out. We also really need to start locking down prizes for the raffle. We had a good start but we are sitting around 3 baskets right now and we hope to get this around 10. If there is anything you can help with or if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Cleveland Browns & Ohio State Buckeye Helmets

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:13:00 -0500

I am happy to announce that we have received two pretty amazing donations for this years raffle. We have a full size official Cleveland Browns helmet along with a full sized Ohio State Buckeyes helmet. A big thank you to Edrian Oliver and Riddell Sports for this amazing donation. I also want to thank David Smith for reaching out to Joe and Annie Thomas again this year. Joe was kind enough to sign a football for us last year and this year he signed the helmet. Thank you Joe and Annie, it really means a lot to us! I have included some images of the helmets below and I can't wait to see everyone buying tickets for these helmets. I have a feeling they are going to be a big hit this year!

100 RSVPs

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:10:00 -0500

I just thought that I would give everyone an update on our first milestone of the year. Today we crossed 100 RSVPs on Facebook + the website. We are still 44 days away from the event and we are already 1/3 of the way to our goal! Thank you to everyone who is spreading the word and keep up the great work!

How Can I Help

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:28:00 -0500

The question I get asked the most is "How can I help out this year". I thought I would take some time and go through all of the things you can do to help make this year's event the best one yet.

Toys

We are all planning on having an amazing night on Saturday, December 10th but we should not forget what our goals are. We will be there to raise toys for children right here in Northeast Ohio. The admission to the party is one toy but there is no limit. Reach out to friends and family who won't be able to make the event and ask them if they would like to donate a toy to a great cause. Ask a few people at work or better yet you could start your very own toy drive at work. This is the most important part of our event and I would like you to think about how you can help make someones Christmas a special one.

Volunteers

We need volunteers to help with a number of things the night of the party. We would like to get enough volunteers so that people work a small shift and the someone else takes over. This will allow a lot of people to help contribute to the event as well as enjoy themselves. If you would like to volunteer we will need you to be there at 6:00 PM the night of the event. Doors will open at 8:00 PM but we need your help getting everything ready. We are looking for volunteers for:

Coat Check
Front Desk / Check-In
Greeters
Raffle Sales
Raffle / Basket Creation

If you can help with any of these items please leave a comment below or get a hold of me.

Raffle

The raffle is not only a big hit for people attending the event but it also helps us support this event every year. We need items to put into themed baskets that we can auction off. If you can reach out to local sports teams or businesses and ask them if they would like to donate something to our event that would be a huge. If you're not quite sure what to look for you can get some ideas by looking at last year's auction items on our raffle page. If each of you can find one item for the raffle we can use these items to promote the event. The more people we can get to attend, the more toys we raise for children. There is a donation request letter that you can print out and send to businesses when requesting donations on our raffle page.

Attendance

Each year we continue to grow this event and this year we have set some pretty large goals. We think that we can get over 300 people to come out that Saturday night but to do it we need your help. Please help us spread the word about this amazing evening. If you would like to put some postcard flyers in a business or pass them out to friends please get a hold of me, we have a bunch! I know I sound really repetitive but I can't stress this enough. The more people we have attend, the more children we help.

Are you excited?

I am not sure if its coming across yet but this year's event is going to be like no other. We are going to be the talk of the town and we are already the talk of the Marines. They look forward each and every year to coming out and celebrating with us. You just have to be there to see the excitement on their faces when those boxes of toys start filling up. I can't wait to see you all there!

Committee meeting agenda and notes

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:09:00 -0500

Friday night we had our first committee meeting and while the turnout wasn't great I thought we were very productive. While this information may not make a lot of sense to those who were not in attendance I told the group I would post this. I also put together a list of the raffle items we had for last years event. If you have any questions please feel free to ask

Agenda

Toys for Shots 2011

Tonight’s Agenda
Toys for Shots 2010
- 215 Attendees
- 12 Boxes of Toys (25-40 toys per box)
- The Good, the bad and the ugly
  - Attendance
  - The back bar was really crowded
  - Check-in / ticket confusion / door prize raffle
2011 Goals
- 300+ Attendees
- 20 Boxes of Toys
Operating Budget
- 2010 / 2011 Projections
Windows on the River
- Expenses
- Decorations
- Food
- Bar
- Coat Check
Printer
- 2000 Postcard flyers from David Forbes at iTecGraphix
- Signs for the Venue (outdoors + indoors)
Entertainment
- Our Favorite Marino Brothers DJs are back (Ryan + Jim)
- Photographer (Dave Brais)
- Mr. & Mrs. Claus / Pictures with Santa?
Attendance
- How do we get more people to attend this year
- Facebook event page
- Advertising
- Website
Raffle
- Door Prizes
- Last Year’s Raffle
- 2011
  - What do we have now
  - Ideas on what we can get
Volunteers
- Coat Check / Check-in / Raffle Table / Ticket Sales / Door Prizes
How Can I help?
Open Discussion / Anything we missed / Suggestions / Ideas

2010 Toys for Shots Chinese Raffle

Sports basket

Anthony Parker Signed basketball
Ramon Session Signed jersey
Joe Thomas signed football
2 Cavs tickets
4 captains tickets
Travis Hafner Signed photo
Cleveland Browns Book
2 Cleveland Browns rocks glasses

Irish basket

Bush mills Irish Whiskey
Jamison Irish Whiskey
Bailey’s
Redbreast Irish Whiskey
6-Pack Guinness beer
12 shot glasses

OSU basket

Ohio State theme Northcoast Adirondack chair
OSU Fleece blanket
2011 OSU Calendar

Ladies Basket

John Roberts Gift Certificate
Aveda Products
Silpada Products & Gift Certificate

Entertainment Basket

2 Cavs Tickets
Crown Plaza Gift Cert
4 Rock Hall Tickets
Nautica Queen Brunch for 2
Lake Erie Monsters / Improv Tickets
Michael Angelo’s $50.00 Gift Certificate
Kids Entertainment Book

Boutique Basket

$15.00 Stone Oven Gift Certificate
4 Ladies tank tops
Winds of Change Boutique Gift Certificates (30/25/30/30)
Winds of Change Boutique $10.00 off

His & Hers

Ladies & Gentleman Package
Legacy Village $100.00
Gwen Miller Men’s Style Basket

Food Basket

Trader Joe's gift basket
Tastefully Simple basket
Pierre's 8 coupons from Pierre's ice-cream for free quarts of ice-cream, and a stainless steel scooper.
Sanders gourmet ice-cream toppings

Gadget basket

Cannon PowerShot A460 Camera
Garmin navigation system
iPod Shuffle

Jennifer & Co.

Products
Gift Certificate

Get Involved This Year

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:20:00 -0500

We have finally locked down plans for our initial planning meeting. This meeting will take place Friday October 21st 6:00 PM at McCarthy's Downtown. This meeting is for anyone who wants to be more involved in the planning of this years Toys For Shots event. We need to start making decisions on certain items and we would love to get feedback or suggestion from anyone willing to give them. We also need to discuss this years raffle and what we can do to make it better than last years. Finally we have a big goal of 300+ attendees. We will need everyone to spread the word and come up with some ideas on how we can hit this goal. Thank you to each and everyone of you who made last years event such a success. I look forward to working with you all again and can't wait to see the new crop of helpers!

Flyer Rough Draft

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:04:00 -0500

Our designer has completed the rough draft of the new flyer for this years event. Before we send them off to the printer I thought I would give you guys a chance to look them over. Please leave us any suggestions or comments below. When these are done I hope most of you can pass these out to friends, colleagues or even strangers on the street! Thanks again for your support.

Help promote our event

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:48:00 -0500

Now that planning is well underway for this years event I would like to take this chance to reach out to all of you. This event continues to grow year after year because of the amazing people that help organize it and those of you who attend and support it. We have set some ambitious goals of hitting 300+ guests this year. Why are goals like this so important us? It is pretty simple, the more people we get to attend, the more toys we raise for underprivileged children in Northeast Ohio.

So I bet your asking how yourself how can I help out Dan? I have a real simple but important task for all of you. Tell a friend, colleague or some random stranger on the street. Tell them how much fun the event is and what a great cause we support in the process. This would mean the world to me but more importantly it will change Christmas for many children. I can't think of anything I would rather do at Christmas than hang out with 300 of my closest friends and do something good at the same time.

You might also notice we have an official blog running on the site this year. If you would like to write a short blog entry about the event, tell a story about Toys For Shots or just reach out to others than get a hold of me. I can set you up as a user and its super simple to create a new article. Thanks again for your continued support friends and I can't wait for December 10th!