Ever wonder how your iPhone works? I mean How. It. Works. The real-time voice in my ear, the live ballgame on my screen, the itty-bitty edge trimmer that makes it vibrate. Aack!
I do not know how this technology works, but I do know how a gala fundraiser for charity works -- that's kind of a segue, right? -- and I know Potluck Inc.'s Not at All a Ball fundraiser is the end-times model of fundraising. It's fundraising after the Dawn of the Machines/Zombies. Just stay in your home, be quiet! No cocktail attire/silent auction, no convention center/live auction, just write a check to Potluck, the area's chief "food rescue" operation.
Potluck is almost three decades old. It takes in excess food from caterers, restaurants, grocers and elsewhere, and shuttles it around to shelters and soup kitchens. I like to think of it as an entrepreneurial 7-year-old's answer to the parenting koan, "starving kids in China." How can I get them my unwanted stuffed cabbage?
On a recent morning I watched Gayle Priddy and Maurice Douglas from Helping Hand of Greater Little Rock load a Chevy bed full of leftover Little Caesar's and sundry foodstuffs. (Pizza, incidentally, is a hot commodity. "When we get low on meat, we'll ask the client, 'Do you want meat or pizza?' They pick pizza," Priddy says.) This was at Potluck's warehouse, a long foul ball from Dickey-Stephens Park.
Each week, Potluck feeds 14,000 Arkansans, it estimates.
This week invitations went out for its Spring Fling 2016, a "Gossamer Gala." Gossamer because it barely exists, although Potluck director Carol Herzog will gladly entertain anyone at Potluck's warehouse, and by entertain I mean task with sorting, carrying, packaging, etc. Potluck is a three-paid-staff charity, and Herzog says she gets a lot of help.
To find out more, visit PotluckFoodRescue.org, or call (501) 371-0303. The campaign continues this month and next, and the funds raised normally exceed $30,000, but this year ...?
GIVE, ARKANSAS!
Much of the total depends on whether Potluck and the Arkansas Community Foundation will consider money raised Thursday as part of Gossamer's fundraising haul.
That's Arkansas Gives Day and, wow, does Arkansas give. Last year -- the first -- about 350 nonprofits together split shares of a $2 million crowd-funded purse. So this year the goal's $4 million, and almost 600 nonprofits have signed on for it. This expected windfall may or may not include the $400,000 the foundation has committed, and another $69,000 from First Security Bank and other patrons for winner's shares in three fields (sizes) in total donors and total funds raised.
You can see the complete list of nonprofits at ArkansasGives.org now. On Thursday, the minimum donation is $25, and it must be made by credit or debit card.
According to Jessica Szenher, a media consultant for the event, one of the neat developments this year is that community foundation affiliates from Magnolia and Mountain Home and spots in between are hosting "watch parties" for Arkansas Gives (the Little Rock party is at the AT&T building, 1111 W. Capitol Ave.).
What's there to watch? Well, one of the big sensations last year was the leader board. A person can visit ArkansasGives.org and watch the Top 10 in three fields compete. (You can click on a link and follow an entire field, if you wish to track your own favorite nonprofit.)
This year there's also a YouTube livestream channel (another link on the homepage) that will be spotlighting six nonprofits over an hour, at 10 a.m., noon and 2 and 4 p.m. Pet charities will showcase adoptable pets, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is going to turn the microphone over to a quartet.
A barbershop quartet?
That's shear nonsense.
Speaking of animals, at 8 a.m. Thursday the "ribbon cutting" at the AT&T building will feature one of the penguins from the Little Rock Zoo, a participating nonprofit.
Now, I know what you're thinking -- Penguin Scissorhands. The penguin is not the official ribbon-cutter -- scissors, flippers or beak.
"The penguin will be there for solidarity," says Sarah Kinser, who's leading the campaign and is positive this penguin is on board with collective action.
There are other, independent promotional events, too. The Central Arkansas Library System is having the Museum of Discovery, Literacy Action of Central Arkansas and AR Kids Read over to its Ron Robinson Theater from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for events, including a parade by the Little Rock Central High School band at noon. Kids can visit with the Cat in the Hat, the Loblolly Creamery ice cream cart, the Museum of Discovery's science expert and performances by the Untapped tap dancers.
If you're a follower of a nonprofit, either by membership or social network, you've probably already heard from it about Arkansas Gives. It's a big deal, especially for small-to-medium 501(c)3s. There are some nice incentives for giving, especially for anyone who wishes to expand her circle of "people."
Don't like the female pronoun when the context is gender neutral? I'm at
bampezzan@arkansasonline.com
High Profile on 04/03/2016