Wednesday, November 21, 2007

One Last Blog

So, yesterday, Julie Talbott and I turned in the last of the courthouse's United Way materials.

And here we are after victory. We made it, and I feel terrific. The goal's met. The campaign's over. And we had a great victory on Friday.



And now the good's to be done.

And I'm glad I signed up to be campaign chairman now. I'm ecstatic I did it. If you'd have asked me last Monday, I probably would have had a different answer! Seriously though, it was great. And now I'm a past campaign chair, and we were the first United Way in this area to finish its campaign on-time. No other United Way in the mid-East Tennessee area has to my knowledge.

Ya' know, I went into this thing with no clue what kind of commitment it was or what it would mean internally working toward goal. And there we were and hadn't made goal at 4:00 o'clock Thursday the day before victory. Then we got the last bit of pledges in that put us over the edge, and it was like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders – just hours before I was going to announce we made victory. Now I know that wasn't the latest we ever did it, but it sure ain't the earliest we ever made it either.

But the good thing is that the money is going to do so much good.

Like I said at the victory, there's going to be somebody sitting at the kick-off breakfast next year whose life has been forever changed, and my life has been forever changed by being a part of this. I appreciate Sandra and the staff for their hard work. It's just been a wonderful experience, and I'm so excited to be the immediate past chairman.

I want to make it clear I don't want to take any of the credit for this campaign because it's the campaign cabinet and the staff who made this happen. I said from the very beginning, I'm just the head cheerleader – no offense to Bryan Daniels. But it feels great to make goal.

And ya' set goals in life so that ya' have to reach hard. On Monday, I was kickin' myself for not setting the goal at $2,100,000 at the campaign cabinet retreat back in May when we were talkin' about it. And I was like, "Aw, come on. Let's do $2,150,000," and last week, I thought, 'What an idiot was I! Cause we'd have made goal Monday if we'd set it at $2,100,000.' But think about the good that extra $50,000 will do in the life of a child, or a victim of a fire, or a domestic abuse victim, or an elderly person needing a meal.

I'm glad we set it where it was, but we barely went over. But it's like bein' pregnant – either ya' are or ya' aren't. It's one or the other. And last Monday, I said to Sandra, "Why did ya' let me open my big mouth and set that goal so high?"

When ya' really think about it with the 5.1 % increase over last year, with the state of the economy the way it is, with the mortgages, and with the gas prices. The list goes on and on, and with the community to step up the way it did. I guarantee ya' there were many people out there who thought, 'That bunch is crazy if they think they're gonna' raise that much money over what they did last year.' It's proof positive that this is the greatest community in the world to live, and the people in Blount County are truly giving people.

I really appreciate Sandra's confidence in me. I know she has a lot of say in who campaign chairs are. I know they're selected by a committee, but obviously as president and CEO she's not going to let any bonehead do it. She just let this bonehead do it. It's been fun, the most nerve-wracking I've ever been involved in – especially these last two weeks when we're eight days out and we're $175,000 short. But we made it, and I just want to say a final thanks to my campaign cabinet. I have a lot of good friends on there, and I appreciate their help.


This campaign has been a long journey. We started with touring all of the community partners, had a great pacesetters campaign, then had the kick-off breakfast, had a very successful Day of Caring. Then we moved into the campaigns, had the mid-campaign report meeting where we were right on-target, then had the most successful hamburger luncheon where I did those deep-fried Twinkies, then we had Gas Day which was also the most successful Gas Day we've ever had, and then we moved into victory (and I'll never live that down with Twinkie the Kid showin' up), and we're the only United Way in this area to make it on-time and on-goal.


Again, I don't want to take credit for us makin' goal, but I'm glad I could play a small part in that.

Thank y'all for readin' the blog. It's been great to be able to share my thoughts with ya' on here. This has been an incredible journey, and I'm glad I could take y'all with me.

All blogged out,
Dave Bennett

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

11th Hour

Y'all know how I said it was crunch time a couple of weeks ago? I lied.

Now it's really crunch time.

We're going to make goal, and several of us are here at United Way reminding folks to get their pledges in.

And it's crazy right now wrapping this campaign up.

We have about a dozen of us volunteering right now to make sure
everyone who wants to contribute to United Way gets their pledges in.

But here we are at the end of this campaign, working to make a difference for Blount County.

So, how am I feeling right now?

I'm nervous. I'm excited. And I'm anxious.

I'm nervous. I'm excited. And I'm anxious.

But it's going to be wonderful come Friday when we hold our victory. We're down around $90,000 to go. Hopefully, by the end of the day we'll have around $70,000 to go for the campaign.

It's been one heck of a ride, especially these last two weeks. I never thought a volunteer job could be so stressful and rewarding all at the same time. And ya' know how I said I was sleepin' a couple of hours a night? That's gone. I'm gonna' sleep like a baby come Friday.

To anybody that's not turned in their pledge, now is the time to get it in, create lasting change and do what matters, and thank you to those who have pledged and made this a successful campaign. We couldn't do it without you.

Blog ya' later,
Dave Bennett

Friday, November 2, 2007

I Ain't Sleepin' Anymore

Hey everybody,

We're two weeks away from wrapping this campaign up, and I'll tell ya' I ain't sleepin' right now. I might get two hours a night, but to me that ain't sleepin'.

I go to bed dreamin' about the United Way logo. I wake up seein' the United Way logo. This is all I think about:

I can't get this campaign out of my head. But that's a good thing with me being campaign chair.

Of course, it's not all because I'm stayin' up worryin' about this campaign. Some of it's just me runnin' around to meetings tellin' about United Way. I've gone to Denso meetings at 6:00 at night. I've gone to the Sheriff's Office at 5:30 in the morning. I've got one 5:30 in my day, but I tell ya' for United Way I'll have two!

We had our campaign cabinet meeting this morning, and things are lookin' pretty good:


Then we did a projection where we took what we have in and what we think is going to come in, and right now if all of the outstanding accounts come in at the exact same level they were at last year, we're runnin' a shortage of $3,295. I tell ya' that $3,295 is gonna' keep me awake for two weeks straight. But we're gonna' work hard these last two weeks findin' new folks and businesses to give so we can not only meet, but beat our goal. I'm confident we can do that, but it’s gonna' take every one of us doin' our part.

I feel like that song from Smokey and the Bandit where it says, "We got a long way to go and a short time to get there."

If y'all wanna' help, just make sure you get your pledge in, and if ya' know someone who doesn't contribute, tell 'em about United Way. Get 'em on-board.

I want to let y'all know that restaurants in Blount County are pitchin' in, too.


They're doing a campaign called "What Matters on Your Platter" where customers can contribute to United Way at the restaurant through November 11th. Restaurants helpin' out are Aubrey’s Restaurant, Foothills Milling Company, Gracie’s Restaurant, Huddle House, Lemon Grass, Shoney’s Restaurant and Sun Up Diner.

Just click here to read Blount Today's article about it, and click here to see what the Daily Times ran on it. Some of those restaurants are even doin' tear-off sheets where you can sign your name, and the restaurant will post it up on their walls.

I better go for now. Y'all have a good one. And contribute to United Way so that I can get some sleep at night!

Blog ya' later,
Dave Bennett

P.S. Our blog has just recently become a part of the World's Biggest Blog Party. Maryville businessman Tim Richardson came up with the idea to link up 1,000 bloggers in the hopes to raise $1,000,000 for nonprofits. They saw the blog and asked us to join. They're gonna' have a link to us from the site and everything.