Invitations!

The invitations have already started to roll in!
Nicole, actually, her Mom, Savonne has invited us all to the beach! I'm not sure which beach - hey, who is going to question a free vacation at the beach? It is in North or South Carolina. We'll stay for four days and I'll be back in Raliegh in time for the wedding on Saturday.

Fundraising and Meeting Famous Authors

Today I attended Classroom Central's annual fund & awareness raising lunch, as a guest of a client and as a supporter of the organization. It was a double whammy for me.  One, because I think it's a great cause and two, because I got to meet Janice Booth, their Executive Director and published author.

Here are some really crappy statistics about poverty & the CMS school system:

• 100,000 kids live in poverty in the Charlotte region
• Everyday, 93 children drop out of school in NC because they lack BASIC school supplies.
• It would take $20 Millon dollars to provide for every underprivlieged child
• 27,000 NC inmates are HS dropouts and the state spends $635 Millon dollars to incarcerate them
• It only costs $200 to provide basic supplies for a student
• One class goes through 200-300 pencils in a MONTH

Now for the great statistics about Classroom Central:

• will provide $5 Millon dollars in school supplies this year
• turns every $1 donated into $7+ in school supplies (wish I could do that with my dollars!)
• gives out 39,000+ pens, 32,000 pencils & 7,200 one subject notebooks each week

As Mick Mixon said, there is enough money to fund these children's needs...it's just in your pocket! 

Now, back to the second reason I was glad to go to the lunch.  I was able to chat with Janice Booth who wrote "Only Pack What You Can Carry: My Path to Inner Strength, Confidence and True Self-Knowledge".  Janice spoke on Charlotte Talks recently and I throughly enjoyed her interview! It was very timely considering the trip I am embarking on next month.  While I will have a co-pilot on this trip, she reminded me of the adventures I've had travelling on my own, rekindling and fanning the flame of independent travel! Janice was incredibly warm and personable today, taking the time to share a story about having dinner with a Prince in Rome; an opportunity that only presented itself because she was alone.  I really appreciated the time she took to chat with me, even more so, because she had just finished one of the biggest events of the year on her business calendar!

The beginning of a beautiful friendship...and our first road trip!

Sixteen years ago Andrea and I took our first road trip to Florida and stayed at the super fancy Sunset View Motel Apartments on Indian Rocks beach.


Here's what I wrote in my diary when we got back. March 13, 1995, "Andrea and I had a great break! Neither one of us has had such a great trip - ever! We got along really, really well. A few tense moments, but that was when we were exhausted, so we just went to sleep. I have a feeling we are going to be very good friends."
















I can't believe how right I was!

That was our first major road trip but not our last. Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of the more entertaining bits to prep you for this June's road trip.

Thanks Sis!

Look what Kathy dropped off this afternoon!

Can't wait to see what great ideas it has for the road trip.