My daughter, Jenn, and I just returned from a very quick trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the sixth event in our 20/20/20 program. As you may recall the Rosenberg Fund for Children currently is staging 20 events over a 20 month period to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

This event had a special wrinkle. Organized by Judy Gumbo Albert, the widow of Yippie leader Stew Albert, it was not only an RFC fundraiser but also a celebration of what would have been Stew’s 70th birthday. As is often the case the reception enabled us to reach out to new donors and reunite with old friends. The party was successful and we had a great time. My only regret is that we were greeted with the persistent, penetrating, damp chill that can afflict the Bay Area rather than mild sunshiny weather that can make cameo appearances even in December.

The end of the year is a good time to review how we have done during the first segment of the 20/20/20 campaign. We’ve held six events in the following cities, Albany, Rochester and Buffalo, NY; Seattle, Providence and Berkeley. In total the events were attended by almost 500 people, garnered dozens of new supporters for the RFC and raised $10,393 after expenses were deducted. Since our goal was to generate $1,000 in income after expenses from each event, we have exceeded our expectations even in the midst of the Bush recession!

We’re not resting on our laurels, and are already actively planning events for the first half of 2010. We have receptions scheduled in Florida in South Miami and Delray Beach on January 24th; in Washington, DC on April 10th; Ocean City, NJ on April 11th; Los Angeles on April 25th; Ann Arbor, MI on May 15th; Chicago on May 16th; Brooklyn on June 18th and in Manhattan on the 19th. It makes me a bit tired just to list all nine of them! In addition we are planning a larger anniversary celebration right here at our home base in Easthampton, MA on October 17th.

By then we will have held 16 events with six months still to go in the campaign. Clearly, we’ll hold more than the 20 events we originally planned.

While this is quite labor intensive, I look forward to each occasion because it gives me a chance to interact personally with so many members of our community, and when it’s possible for Jenn to accompany me, to introduce her to our supporters as well. Every place I go I meet active and compassionate people who care about our work as well as many other efforts to improve our world. I hope I get the chance to meet each and every one of you when I come to town.

-------------------------------------------
To receive a notification whenever there is a new post to Out on a Limb Together, subscribe now.