Red Cross, Writing
This is an article I wrote promoting Cabaret and Cuisine 2017, a fundraising event for the Red Cross of Eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley-Bucks Chapter. The article was written for publication in local print media.
When it comes to throwing a retro dance party, the American Red Cross may not come to mind as a typical organizer.
Yet, the nonprofit’s Lehigh Valley-Bucks chapter throws one of the biggest retro dance parties in Pennsylvania every year: Red Cross Cabaret and Cuisine. And if you and your company aren’t involved, you’re missing out.
Cabaret and Cuisine is one of the chapter’s biggest fundraising events of the year – but it’s not like the standard black-tie fundraiser dinners you’ve been to before. Guests don their best throwback attire. They enjoy food and beer from restaurants and breweries from all across the Lehigh Valley. And then, they dance like it’s the 1960s.
Or this year, like it’s the 1970s. That will be the theme of this year’s event.
Local restaurants and breweries partner with the chapter to provide the food. Others get involved by becoming sponsors.
But Cabaret and Cuisine – an event unique to the chapter – is not the only way Lehigh Valley companies get involved in their local Red Cross chapter.
Other companies get involved by becoming members of the chapter’s board. In fact, one of the biggest strengths of the Lehigh Valley-Bucks chapter is how strong and committed its board is.
And with those board seats, those companies get the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of the members of their community.
Take, for example, the case of engineering company FL Smidth. Last year, Peter-Steen Olsen, who represents the company on the chapter’s board, volunteered for one of the chapter’s Home Fire Campaign events. During those events, volunteers install and test smoke alarms in homes that don’t have them, and help families come up with a home fire escape plan.
After he finished, Olsen was captivated – and he knew his company colleagues would be as well. Since that first event, FL Smidth has consistently had people take part at the events, month after month. Sometimes, more than a dozen will volunteer their free time.
FL Smidth adopted the home fire campaign as its own to do and support – and it started with one board member. Now, the company is part of the more than two thousand smoke alarms that have been installed as part of the Home Fire Campaign since it launched in the Lehigh Valley in 2015.
These are just a few ways local companies are making their mark in the community through their local Red Cross Chapter. How will yours make its impact?