Dear Post Secret...

I love reading Post Secret and finding that other people have the same secrets as me...

Project Elmwood: Success!

Yesterday I got to help HOT 103 collect toys (and other kids items) for their Project Elmwood campaign. I was super excited to be a part of this project, because this is the kind of stuff that I live for!

I started the morning off by trading cars with my sister for the day (She has a Honda Element, and I have a two-door Chevy Cobalt; it's cute, but not functional for this kind of work!) and before I could even think about this project, I had to stop for my morning coffee. (I love you coffee...) I knew that it was going to be a long day, but I had no clue just how long... (Winnipeggers, you amazed me with your piles and piles of donations!)

I began my commute around the city at 9:30 am. With my notes and directions that I copied from google maps, I spent the morning picking up donations by myself. Heather, my sister, was going to come with me, but her husband was golfing and we didn't want to lug her two-year old daughter along for the ride. (That wouldn't have been enjoyable for poor Kennedy!) I honestly didn't mind doing it alone though; I cranked the music and sang really loud, and I made a pile of videos with my camera that I was going to edit into a vlog post. (I've scrapped that idea though, because my imovie editing skills are poor...) When it came to doing the pickups, I didn't find any of the items too heavy, or too big to load. I was fine.

It was really neat to see how Ace Burpee can rally a crowd to do something like this. (I respect that man for all of the charity work he does!)

At about 11:00 am I dropped off my first load of donations to the storage locker that the daycare rented. Our first haul was awesome, and Lucille (the woman who runs the daycare) was extremely humbled by the outpouring of support.

It was getting hot, and I decided to take a little break before venturing into St James and Charleswood. I went to Starbucks to get a shaken passion fruit lemonade. While I was there, I got a call from my friend Lee; he said that he had just finished golfing and he wanted to to know if I still needed help. Of course I took him up on his offer, as the pick-ups were taking me a lot longer than I originally thought they would, and I knew that two people would be better than one.

I met up with Lee, unloaded the items I had in the back into his car, and we ventured out into Sunny St. James and Charleswood. (I have to note that both of us are not overly familiar with that part of town, so we did our best to navigate our pickups based on the notes I made. We got lost about a thousand times, and we did a lot of back-tracking, but it was fun!)

At one point my friend Caitlin called me and told me about a charity garage sale on Portage, that had offered to donate a ton of stuff to us if we could get down there right away. Lee and I couldn't believe it, because we had just made a stop a block away from that garage sale, so it was like fate! We got into the Element, and made it there in about two minutes. The volunteers at the garage sale and Caitlin and her friends helped rummage through the items, and we got three or four huge boxes full of kids stuff! (When I offered to make a monetary donation to the garage sale, the woman declined. She told me that they were glad to help the Elmwood Daycare get back on their feet!)

It was truly astounding: charities helping charities.

All in all, Project Elmwood took about eight or nine hours to complete. (It might have been less time if I had better navigation skills...) But, we had a great time. We collected so many toys and kids items, that we almost filled the entire storage locker from top to bottom. Lucille and Dennis were thrilled with the outpouring of generosity from Winnipeggers, who gave stuff like TV's, bikes, tables, books, etc. -- It was truly touching to be a part of.

I am still getting calls and messages from people wanting to donate. -- If you are one of those people, email me at shelka79@hotmail.com and I will get you in touch with Lucille!

This day wouldn't have been as successful without the help of Lee McCarthy and Caitlin MacGregor, thank you guys!

P: Pet Peeve: The Knock-Off.

I hate knock-off's.

This is kind of a strange pet peeve to have, but I really do hate cheap knock-off merchandise! (Especially handbags and purses!!)

I remember a long time ago I went to the Pal with a group of girls, and one (who had just returned from overseas) was sporting a Louis Vuitton handbag...Well, errr, um a knock-off of a Louis Vuitton handbag.

All night this girl bragged about her new bag, which she claimed to be real.

"Blah blah blah, my "Louis Vuitton purse..." Blah blah blah."

It was irksome. Her bag was bad quality, and if she truly believed it was real (and paid a lot of money for it) I feel bad for her.

I admit that I'm not into designer labels (which is probably why I find knock-off's so offensive) But really? Really?!? Knock-off's are tacky.

Arrrgh.

Photo: www.pursenickety.com

P - Procrastination: Everybody needs a play-by-play...

There is no time that I like Facebook more than when I am supposed to be doing my homework!

I am working on a personality profile that is due tomorrow at 8:00am, and I can't seem to stop changing my Facebook status what seems to be every ten seconds!

9:10:01 Shelley is working on her personality profile! :)

9:10:22 Shelley is getting a lot done!

9:10:47 Shelley thinks that it's time for a break!

9:11:07 Shelley is going to take a short nap, and come back to her personality profile soon!

4:37:01 Shelley is freaking out because she took a nap and needs to finish her personality profile!! OMG, it needs to be in Vogelsang's hands in less than 3 hours!!! AHHHHHHH...

(Okay so those aren't my actual status messages, but the night is young; I'm sure there is still a very good chance that a catastrophe could occur as the hours go on, and my Facebook status messages will indeed be a frantic train wreck waiting to happen!!)

I am not sure if I do this to myself because subconsciously I love the feeling of almost not making it, and having a mild heart attack on the bus while wearing no makeup. Or perhaps its the fact that I am simply forgetful of the last time (which was likely just days ago) that I was overly confidant in my writing ability and time management skills, only to kick myself for it in the end for just barely squeezing something out...Or maybe, just maybe I am lazy.

I'm not sure.

What I do know is that right now, I am trying to piece my Journalism assignment together with little apprehension, while periodically changing my status message so that everybody in my Facebook realm knows exactly what I am doing, and how I am feeling.

Somehow I feel that it is important that they know; they are after all deserving of the eight million status message changes I do on any given day, aren't they?!

(Narcissism at it's finest folks!)

But really, right now I ought to be doing my Personality profile, so that I can at least get a couple hours of shut-eye before I frantically run up to the third floor office at the Princess Street campus at 7:58 tomorrow morning...

Ugh.

Back to the ol' drawing board for me!

Photo courtesy of: http://static.pyzam.com/img/funnypics/5/facebook.jpg

P - PR, and the magical people who are REALLY, REALLY good at it...

As I sat in my messy, MESSY, apartment this morning, I got to thinking about PR, and how good at PR some people can actually be.

Me, I am still learning the craft, and as of right now I am not a very good "spinner". Although, I hope by the end of CreComm I will have amassed enough understanding about the craft of PR to be able to spin my way into, and out of ANYTHING...

I look at other people, the ones who are PR masters, and they can make anything sound fantastic, or make any conversation or interview go in the direction that they want it to without making it seem like they are...I am fairly certain that these people are magic.

Here is an example of what I was talking about...

Me: "Tell me about yourself"

Exceptional PR Person: "Well, I have been doing whatever it is that I do for a really long time, blah, blah, blah...However now I am going to flawlessly change the topic to whatever *I* actually want to talk about, and you aren't going to notice, because I am relating it back to me somehow..."

Me: "Wow! So you did all that, tell me more!?!" (notice now that the topic of the interview is now about what the PR person wanted to actually talk about, and *I* am the who changed it...CLEVER!!)

Exceptional PR Person: "Yes, well this (insert PR person's topic here) is very important to me, blah,blah,blah...You can actually learn more about it if you go to our website, blah, blah, blah...And they key thing that I really want to emphasize is blah, blah, blah..."

Me: "So what your telling me is that the thing that you have just talked about for twenty minutes that I am not actually looking for at all, is really important to you!?"

Exceptional PR Person: "Yes. Yes it is."

Me: "Fantastic! Now lets talk about..."

Exceptional PR Person: "Oh you mean, lets continue to talk about what I want to talk about?! Okay!"

Later on in the evening, as I am writing my story...

Me: "Hmmm...After talking to that person for a long time, and feeling rather inspired about them and the story I was going to write about them, I now realize that I have pretty much nothing to go on...I do however have a TON of information on the topic that is important to him/her...I guess I'll have to change my angle to that." *sigh*

I am not sure if this kind of skill can be learned, or if it is just some kind of magical PR gift that some people are born with. However, that being said, the little scenario that I posted made me (the aspiring journalist) look quite passive...Obviously if I want to be a journalist (which I do), I am going to have to learn to be comfortable with asking tough questions that even the most magical of PR people will have a tough time not answering with some level of...Uh...'Non PR-ness',

Hmm...Perhaps one of the best ways to become a better journalist is to learn as much as you can about PR. (*light bulb moment here folks*!)

I still have a lot to learn in my next couple of years in CreComm...



Let's all learn about the Daddy of PR himself; Edward Bernays! Thank you sir, for showing us how to manipulate the masses!

P; Praying for a troubled child (WFP article, 10.15.09)

In today's Winnipeg Free Press, Mike McIntyre wrote an article;Praying for a troubled child: Mother agonizes over decision to place daughter with Child and Family Services, about a desperate mother's plight to save her out-of-control teenage daughter, by having Child and Family Services intervene.

Though I can empathize with the mother, I believe that her candid interview with the Winnipeg free Press does nothing to help her cause. Instead, I think her open criticism of CFS served to further discredit the hard work and dedication that the majority of the over-worked case workers that are employed by CFS undertake on a regular basis.

the mother's complaint; "My daughter is in major danger in the hands of CFS" discredits the very system that she failed to thoroughly research, when she decided to place her daughter in their custody in 2007.

If you read the newspaper, or have read the newspaper in the last five years, you have probably read a story about the crippled state of the CFS system; it baffles me that she, the mother, felt that this system would be able to rehabilitate her daughter.

The system itself is on life support, and it's not a secret, but rather a bold-faced tragedy.

None the less, in 2007 the mother, in her desperate state, opted to call CFS with the hopes that they could reform her troubled daughter.

I don't get it...

Perhaps she didn't understand, or notice the fundamental issues plaguing the current state of the CFS system before concluding that they would be the most beneficial option to "save" her daughter.

CFS is a bandaid solution, it is not a rehabilitation centre.

Regardless, the woman feels as though she and her daughter are victims of the system.

In fact, she has gone as far as to state in an open letter to CFS: "If something happens to my child, I will hold you responsible. She cannot be another statistic of the children that die in the hands of CFS."

Which is extremely brazen in my opinion, since she was the one who entrusted the girl into a system that i is already overwhelmed in the first place.

Unfortunately this mother's plight will serve to further tarnish the already dirty reputation that CFS already has.

Hopefully for the sake of everyone, this mother and daughter will be able to find the help they need down another avenue...

Picture courtesy of the Daily Mail.