Animal non-profit to win Cardinals award!

by admin on February 8, 2012

It is always a good idea to be aware of awards in your community that your clients might be eligible for. This increases the visibility of the individual and/or business.

My client, Michele Elek-Zuberbuehler, has been extremely active in animal welfare and co-founded Panacea Animal Wellness Sanctuary, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. She also has the position of being the director.

Michele’s passion is boundless and she has sacrificed her personal life and has a saint of a husband who supports her work with “PAWS”. Even though she has a day job, she works every minute she can for the organization…day, nights and weekends. Just a sample of her activities: created the foster/adoption program, becoming a partner with PetSmart Chairities to hold adoptions each weekend at a Mesa location, recruits, supervises and trains volunteers, manages all records, oversees the financials, board recruitment, reviews the daily local euthanasia list to review with her business partner which animals they can save and find foster homes so they won’t be killed. The list goes on and on.

The vision she and her business partner have is to create a community like Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. This would serve our community by ensuring there are no senseless and unnecessary euthanasia, education to the public on all animal welfare issues including spaying and neutering, puppy mills/backyard breeding, adoption options and current legislation. Also helping low income families in the community who are at risk of having to give up family pets due to the inability to find no/low cost medical options and food banks for their pet needs enabling them to stay together.

She was a perfect candidate for the Arizona Cardinals Community Quarterback award. I contacted her and her business partner to share the parameters for the nomination and we got busy to get the nomination form submitted. It was an inspiring opportunity to get to know Michele better and have the resolve that she was going to win.

There were 67 entries submitted for the award. Winners were chosen by a panel of community leaders and “PAWS” was the ONLY animal welfare organization chosen! Screaming over the phone was just the beginning of the celebration!

On January 1, 2012, the Arizona Cardinals presented Michele Elek-Zuberbuehler, co-founder and Director of Panacea Animal Wellness Sanctuary one of the 5 Cardinals Community Quarterback Awards.

She received the award during the pre-game show of the Cardinals vs. Seahawks game by Cardinals President, Michael Bidwell.

She was asked what number she wanted for her Cardinal’s jersey and being a proud ASU Alum, she chose #40 to honor Pat Tillman. “Anytime there’s a chance to honor and remember him, we should,” shares Michele.

Michele is so deserving of this award. Congratulations Michele!

Featured on KPHO Channel 5, The Tribune and a great article by the Arizona Republic.

www_azcentral_com_community_gilbert_articles_2011_12_28_2011

I am so grateful to have a client who I felt deserved to have a submission for this prestigious award. Congrats Michele!

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Thanksgiving Dinner Drive for homeless schoolchildren

by admin on December 20, 2011

I have been fortunate to work with The Real Gift Foundation on several of their charitable fundraisers. This non-profit serves the homeless school children in Maricopa County, AZ. This November was their 12th Annual Thanksgiving Dinner Drive.

This is not your typical drive. They don’t ask the community to drop off turkeys or fixings.

The Real Gift Foundation orders pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinners complete with an 8-10 pound turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, and more. Each dinner feeds a family of six. Because of the nature of the event, they fundraise AFTER they have already placed the order, months before they will be delivered on the elementary school district warehouse docks.

Talk about FAITH IN ACTION! The foundation staff, volunteers and teachers deliver 3,650 dinners to homeless school children (and their families) who attend over 70 public schools throughout the Valley feeding over 22,000 people! This meant raising just over $80,000 to pay for all the meals that would be distributed on November, 22.

Conde Rogers, President of The Real Gift Foundation, is steadfast in her knowing that the community will learn of our efforts through our public relations campaign and the money will be raised. The donations to the foundation were significantly lower when we started this year compared to last year at this time. The economy hit everyone hard.  Yet, Conde sets the bar and knows that the community will stand to meet it.

We had new stories to be told through the media. There were many first time homeless families due to the economy. One family’s daughter had cancer and due to her treatment and the loss of one of her parent’s jobs, they were living in their car.

The stories were shared by television, radio magazine and newspaper reporters. The social media campaign was successful in getting the word out as well and the money was raised. See the story on local FOX affiliate KSAZ.

Cory’s Corner The Real Gift Foundation’s Thanksgiving Dinner Drive

Yes, I love doing the PR campaign, yet I also get the joy of being on site to watch families come to pick up their Thanksgiving dinners. To see the looks and hear the words of gratitude filling the air brings a tear to my eye. Plus to watch the gratitude pouring out of the hearts of the volunteers and teachers who were at the school district warehouse facility at 6am with huge smiles awaiting the opportunity to serve this community.

Gratitude is a two-way street, for the giver and the receiver.  I am blessed to have been a part of it.

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Halloween Safety Tips for Pets

November 1, 2011

Don’t let your evening turn into a nightmare by having to take your pet to the vet. As you would keep your kids safe, extend the same care to your furry kids! Most importantly, educate your children on the dangers so that they understand how to keep their beloved pet safe! When the kids get [...]

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Welcome Twitter Slumber Party fans!

October 15, 2011

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to extend my birthday wishes to  Dabney Porte and have the opportunity to be a community sponsor tonight for Twitter Slumber Party attendees. My love is to lift people into the spotlight and so I will be gifting the winner an hour consultation with myself, “PR Diva” [...]

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Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple resigns

October 14, 2011

August 24…news broke about Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, Inc. retiring. Twitter was a buzz with this breaking news. I looked at the tweets flying by from all the news organizations and then from people commenting on what would be the fate of the company’s stock prices, what would happen without his day to day [...]

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