Polish Home Event

I wanted to wait until today to post because I knew a lot more would be happening for the event.

I started out finding out that we do have Ravens Tickets for the event. Also I called he guy Scott for the silent auction and I told him i don't think we need him because we have a small event and we don't want to pack the silent auction so instead he's going to just donate an item which I'll find out Monday.

Also, stasi and i went to the Polish Home hall and we sold 13 tickets and told everybody there about the event and promoted it well. One lady on the CCBB board said she handed out a flier in every community news letter so everybody in Brooklyn knows about the event right now. It's just a matter of getting them to buy tickets.

Donations for Event

Previously Donated:
2 Pictures of Lenny Moore
Tom Matte Football
Art Donovan Jersey
Event T-Shirt signed by Tom Matte and Art Donovan

Donated:
Two Sets of Two Oriole Tickets in June
Signed Picture of Brooks Robinson
Signed Picture of Nick Markakis
Signed Baseball (have to check who signed it)

The Oriole Bird will come for and hour and a half from 3:00-4:30

In works- should know tomorrow:
Two Ravens Tickets
Multiple Gift Cards
Basket-o-cheer

Appearances:
4 Baltimore Blast Players (will find out who soon)
Vincent Pettway

Last week and future plans

In big news I have an oral history set up with Art Donovan on Monday which should be great. But also I got the silent auction deal done. I talked to the guy Scott who owns Baltimore's baseball card outlet and he said to just give him a count two weeks before and he'll send stuff. I also picked up some things from the Baltimore Blast. The players are still coming but I picked up four things for raffles and silent auction. It was all they could give me but they gave me a signed blast soccer ball, a media guide, bobble head, and cup, which we'll have to decide what to do with later. Other than that there isn't much big news. I just have to keep working on what I'm doing and get more players hopefully and more stuff for the silent auction.

My week: Calling and emailing people

All I've been doing this week was calling and emailing people for the event. I called Pat Pannella who was my contact for Lenny Moore but he said Lenny was not interested but he will donate two signed pictures for the event's silent auction. Vincent Pettway fully committed to sign at the event. He is a former world champion welterweight boxer that is well known around the older sports community. I got in contact with Jeff Seidell who was down with the flu and he said he was having toruble getting in touch with Tom Matte but will be in touch with him by Monday if he has to actually knock on his door. He said he can also easily get in touch with Bruce Laird, Joe Erhmann, and Stan White to see if they want to come to the event, which since they run gridirion greats they will most likely be very interested since 1/3 or the money is going there. Another contact I have said he's going to ask Art Modell to come to the event. He's very close with him and is almost like a son to Art Modell. The only worry with him is his health and if he doesn't feel well he won't go, but if he does it's a huge draw since he'll be in the hall of fame eventually and was the former major owner of the Ravens but is now the minority owner. I got in touch with Kevin Healey of the Baltimore Blast who said he's absolutely interested in helping us out. I sent him an email explaining everything and he'll put in on the list of charity event's they do and he'll get players and memorabilia as well as small things to have raffled off. Also I got in touch with the Washingotn Wizards who said they'd be interested in sending memoriblia and possibly players after we send a letter to them to read over and see what the event it. They would also likely provide tickets since we are non-profit. The other big contact I had was with Keith Booth who university of Maryland basketball's assistant head coach and a sports icon in Maryland. He hasn't said if he'd do it yet but he's from the area and he just had to see what his schedule looked like.

I think I made great progress today since gettng in touch with the Washington Wizards, Keith Booth, The Blast, and my contact with Art Modell all happened today.

Contacting Players for Event

The other day I got a list of 12 former Colt's addresses. The classes worked on a letter to send but I personally wanted to talk to Lenny Moore about the event. He usually has a big appearance fee but I'm trying to convince him to come by donating 1/3 of the profits to the Leslie Moore foundation which he runs instead of actually paying him. Getting Lenny Moore would be great because he is a hall of fame player that is a huge draw for people to see. He's also best friends with Art Donovan so maybe he could talk him into coming. If he doesn' go for it, which I should here his answer today, they plan be is to donate 1/3 of the money to Gridiron greats and try to get Bruce Laird, Tom Matte, and Stan white who all are three of the top executives on that board. I really hope to have some commitments soon. I think they will come too with the way it's being presented to them.

A Sit Down with Raj and Meena at Club 4100

I went back again today and interviewed Raj and Meena and also went over some financial issues there. The one thing I noticed is that the class has a sever lack of communication. Apparently two other groups went today and nobody knew about anybody else going. We just need better communication. But a lot of stuff did get done there. We discussed the food situation and they are interested in crowning a new Ms. 4100 at the event to bring that tradition back to life. The only other thing they discussed was that they would like a few changes on the logo and flier and that is just to put their name and phone number there to promote it.

Interviews at Club 4100

I finished my IRB training and afterwards Stasi, Nick, and myself went to Club 4100 today to meet with George Mills (Father of Keith Mills) and he gave us great information about the history and what it means to him. He's really passionate about anything helping the club and has so many great contacts. He also said Tom Matte comes to the club all the time even now, which makes getting Tom Matte to do a signing even more likely because he has a major allegiance to the place. After talking to George and getting a great sense of the history and what is means I spoke with a man Duke Van Brackel who has gone to the bar every day since it opened 50 years ago. He said that it means so much to him and it's an "Oasis in a desert". No matter what the feeling was people go there. He said he went their even after his mother died because it's like his family and it's his comfort zone. He wasn't a sports fan but still just loved the place. It was really great to get both sides of the history, one from the sports fan and one from a non-sports fan.

We planned a meeting Monday at 3:00 to meet with Mina and Raj (they were busy and we couldn't really interview them) to interview and just go over the plan of what we're doing. Also we'll do any follow up interviews with the regulars and interviews with any new people that are there.