AGM Grand Opening 2011
I attended the opening of the Santa Fe Alternative Gift Market at Santa Fe’s DeVargas Mall last night, the 16th, and it was a joyous and successful event. I’ve attended so many Christmas parties and fund raisers this season that my head is spinning, but this was special!
Alternative Gifts International is a non-profit organization that inspires support for humanitarian and environmental causes. People can come to the market and buy everything from a prosthetic leg for a land mine victim in the Congo, to a lawyer for a girl who’s rescued from sex slavery, to a meal and a bed for a homeless person in the Santa Fe Interfaith Shelter, and on and on. Among other things, I bought a brick for a wall of honor for the Esperanza Shelter for Battered women in honor of my mother, Belle.
The Market got great publicity on the radio and in the press all week thanks to the wonderful group of volunteers headed by author, Jamie McGrath Morris, author and mediator, Lucy Moore, Director of Santa Fe Libraries, Pat Hodapp, artist, Kay Bird, the warm and lovely Ali MacGraw, Mayor Coss and many more. I must say that when you have a good cause and you keep on building the excitement around it, you really can get the media attention you are looking for. The media is desperate for a good story with some hope in it these days.
Thanks to our brilliant local radio host celebrity, Mary-Charlotte on KSFR, most of Santa Fe heard about the Market this week and the guys at the Baking Company donated baked goods to eat along with Java Joe’s coffee. Santa Fe is that kind of town! It’s filled with people who are open to sharing generously with those who don’t have enough.
I am so happy to be working in the non-profit community here, offering my services as a fundraising consultant and strategist to the groups that do so much!
Please comment on this blog about community work that means a lot to you.
All best,
Irene
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