Thursday, August 18, 2005
Who Supports Our Troops?
An interesting project
Every once and while, the general mindless chores of working in DC (Commenting on proposed regulations, going to god awful coalition meetings, attending Senate/House hearings) get pushed aside for a project that reminds me of why I got into this business in the first place. Today I got one of those calls.
A client of mine called to enlist my assistance in rounding up some big name politicians to attend a fundraiser for an organization called Homes for our Troops. HfOT is kind of like a less glamorous version of extreme makeover home edition that builds accessible homes for our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered pretty severe injuries. Very moving stuff, especially if you consider the state of our VA hospitals, who are overworked and underfunded.
While generally my office is not big enough to help coordinate such events for my clients, there wasn't a moment of hesitation before "Yes, Absolutely" came out of my mouth.
So over the course of the next few weeks, I committed to work the phones for these folks seeing if I can round up Politicians (The bigger the better) to simply attend a fundraiser my client is hosting. I'll hit up the usual suspects, like the state's Senator's and Congressman. But I thought it'd be fun to put others on the spot. If I already have to call Senators Kennedy and Kerry, why the heck can't I use my connections to try to pull in some big fish...Rummy?(I know, why punish these people), VA Secretary Nicholson, Collin Powell, Bob Dole, Etc.
It would be a great social experiment to draft a list of politicians/pundits (from both sides of the aisle) to invite to this event. An equal number of D's and R's if you will...to see who supports the troops. It'd be bad form to post details (The first goal of this project is to help this cause, the secondary goal-where compatible - is your edification), so I'll have to play it by ear. Anyway, an interesting (and clearly worthwhile) project if you ask me. I'll keep you posted.
Every once and while, the general mindless chores of working in DC (Commenting on proposed regulations, going to god awful coalition meetings, attending Senate/House hearings) get pushed aside for a project that reminds me of why I got into this business in the first place. Today I got one of those calls.
A client of mine called to enlist my assistance in rounding up some big name politicians to attend a fundraiser for an organization called Homes for our Troops. HfOT is kind of like a less glamorous version of extreme makeover home edition that builds accessible homes for our troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered pretty severe injuries. Very moving stuff, especially if you consider the state of our VA hospitals, who are overworked and underfunded.
While generally my office is not big enough to help coordinate such events for my clients, there wasn't a moment of hesitation before "Yes, Absolutely" came out of my mouth.
So over the course of the next few weeks, I committed to work the phones for these folks seeing if I can round up Politicians (The bigger the better) to simply attend a fundraiser my client is hosting. I'll hit up the usual suspects, like the state's Senator's and Congressman. But I thought it'd be fun to put others on the spot. If I already have to call Senators Kennedy and Kerry, why the heck can't I use my connections to try to pull in some big fish...Rummy?(I know, why punish these people), VA Secretary Nicholson, Collin Powell, Bob Dole, Etc.
It would be a great social experiment to draft a list of politicians/pundits (from both sides of the aisle) to invite to this event. An equal number of D's and R's if you will...to see who supports the troops. It'd be bad form to post details (The first goal of this project is to help this cause, the secondary goal-where compatible - is your edification), so I'll have to play it by ear. Anyway, an interesting (and clearly worthwhile) project if you ask me. I'll keep you posted.
