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!