Monday, December 8, 2008

PR News Post #21

This post isn't really dedicated to any well known or national PR news, but it is my own personal PR news!  I just got an internship this summer people!  I am so excited!  It is an internship in Washington D.C.  Not only is it an internship, but it is a public relations internship in the heart of our nation's capitol!  I am so excited to get all the experience that I need to get a great job once I graduate!  Although this is a very expensive internship,  they provide me with a place to live, and I get to take classes at Georgetown University!  I am so excited!  So that is my own personal PR news for the week!  

PR News Post #20

So I'm not sure if I have already talked about this in my PR news posts yet, but if so, I am sorry, but I just feel I need to say how I feel about this whole thing.  What is this thing I speak of?  Well, it is the "going green scam," or at least that's what I call it!  Here I am sitting on my couch trying to stay healthy by drinking my bottled water I just got out of the fridge.  Out of pure boredom, I start reading the label on the side of my "nestle pure life" water bottle.  What does it say?  The company has gone eco-friendly by making the bottle more friendly for the environment!  I just think this thing is so pathetic!  It is a plastic bottle people!  All these companies are using what their PR are people are telling them to do by "going green," when it actually does nothing different.  I guess I don't really have much proof.  I'm just going off my gut feeling, and it makes me angry!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Prospectus Letter (Final) - Team Awesomeness

Tara Alder
Community Youth Coordinator
435.716.9249
talder@loganutah.org
Summary:
In order to continue the exceptional level of education and community service to the parents and children of Cache Valley, the After School Club program needs one or more grants equaling a value of at least $150,000.

Sponsor Appeal: Through the years your organization has been helping schools and education programs across the nation. It is nearly impossible to see a school that has not be directly helped by your hand. Your philanthropy has changed millions of lives, and now we ask that you help change the lives of the children in our program. Our After School Club is an organization that tutors children in need of assistance and helps them learn lesson that they may not be learning in school. We help them with communication skills and basic social skills, and teach them ways to negotiate lives challenges. Without the aid of a sponsor we may not be able to continue helping the children due to recent state budget cuts. We ask that you help us to keep helping the children.

Problem: Companies located in Logan city will benefit greatly from the funding of Logan Parks and Recreation's After School Club, not only because of the service they will be providing to hundreds of local children, but also because they will be helping to keep Logan community the safe and respectable place that it is.  After School Club is currently looking for giving companies in order to keep the program from being shut down due to lack of funding. Local companies need to realize the direct influence After School Club has on Logan city, which eventually leads to an effect on local companies themselves. If grants are not provided by local companies the ASC program will be shut down and will have terrible results on the community of Logan. Over the years ASC has been linked to lowering the rates of gangs and criminal activity and raising the rates of high school graduation and college enrollment. Without the help of local businesses, the extremely affordable and beneficial program will be finished, and parents will be left with no other solution of what to do with their children. Major portions of these children have parents that are working for local companies like the ones we are requesting grants from. If we we are not provided with these grants, employees may not be able to work the hours they currently take on. The benefits of funding the ASC program are worth far more than the simple donation we are asking for.

Solution: The solution to the problem at hand is a simple one. After we obtain the funding necessary to continue our services, we will lobby the state for a more secure budget. Once this is secured, we can continue our mission of helping children through hard times and educating them so they can be better prepared for the world.

Capabilities: Our organization has been operating now for 30 years. In this time, we have helped thousands of children. We are constantly improving our methods, and adhering to the time tested ones. Our director has been in the position for years and has proven herself through many hard times.

Budget: One or more grants equaling a value of at least $150,000 will contribute enough to keep the program running for another year.

- The actual minimum amount that is needed to keep the program running is $300,000, but whatever amount we can receive in grants will be matched by Logan City.

- A contribution in this amount would go towards paying enough employees to keep tutoring and supervising the children.

- This money would also go towards funding of school supplies, working supplies, and monthly field trips and service projects.

- This money is the minimum amount to staff approximately 24 employees in six different schools that occupy around 500 children or more.

We thank you for your time in looking over this. You have been a great support of education, and we look forward to your future endeavors.

Sincerely, Tara Alder

Friday, November 21, 2008

PR News #19

Today is a mini career day on campus for PR students. I think it is really cool they are trying to do more and more stuff like this for PR students seeing as how they are not recognized very well by the campus. I am a PR students, so I should be going to this right? Well, the truth is that I am not going to the PR career day. I have no explanation for this. To be honest, I just don't want to go ... honestly. I would rather die than go sit through lectures, workshops, and speeches about PR and what I need to do, and what I'm supposed to do. I appreciate the help people are offering, but I can't take any of it anymore. All I hear all day is I have to do this and that and then this and then that if I wanna have a career in the PR field. It gets me so worried and so stressed out because honestly, all I really want is to be successful in life. It that is with PR, then that is great, but if it's with something else, that is great to. As long as I find happiness and success somewhere along the line. But sometimes I just have to step back and go "wait a second, I'm only 19 years old! Can't I slow it down a bit!" I just feel like screaming sometimes and telling everyone to let me take a breath! So ... that is why I'm not going to PR day.

PR News Post #18

Why have blogs become what they are? I know we are constantly taught in all of our PR classes that blogs have more of an effect than we know. They are supposedly becoming this huge thing that we are supposed to do, but I just don't know if i agree with it all. I mean, it almost gets annoying to me. I don't know if it is just the fact that we can't interact as normal people anymore, or the fact that I just hate blogging. Well, truth be told, I actually quite enjoy blogging, but it is just the fact I know no one is reading this right now. No one ever reads my blogs, and no one ever will, and I am fine with that. So why do I have to keep writing in this stupid blog then?! I'll tell you why, because for some reason all my professors seem to think it is soooo important, and I am just letting everyone know that I am fed up. Are blogs really as revolutionary and industry changing as we have been taught? I think not! P.S. I totally didn't mean to rhyme there ... but hey, what do I care? No one's reading this anyway ...

PR News Post #17

I recently read one of my classmates news posts and I thought it was very interesting, so I am going to write about the same topic. What is this topic you ask? Well, it is a dog ... seriously, I'm not kidding people. I guess it might seems like more of a news story to mention it is the Obama family dog! All President elect Obama had to do was mention in his acceptance speech that his girls would be recieving a dog as reward for helping him through his campaign, and by the next morning stories were already generating about this. What type of dog do they want? When will he get it? How much will they pay? Will they rescue a shelter dog or get a purebred? All these stories because of one small statement, that might not have even been that serious in the first place. Now I call that great PR on Obama's side!

PR News Post #16

This news post is dedicated to something I find very PR related, but I didn't read on PR News or anything. It is about Britney Spears. Now I am not saying I'm a huge fan of her or just looking for a way to write another post. I am just pointing out that what her PR team has done for her the past few months has been brilliant. They took this fallen pop star who seemed as though she was a lost cause. She was losing custody of her children, fighting over a bitter divorce with her sloppy husband, and getting more and more mentally unhealthy. She was shown negatively in every tabloid for almost two years. I swear this girl could take a pee and it would hit the front page of the Enquirer! I think Britney's team of people finally realized what amazing potential she had for a comeback. With everyone seeing the pop star they idolized not many years ago turing into trailer trash, they all wanted their old Britney back. They all wanted to help her and see her have success. You couldn't ask for an easier PR job! People want this person to do well and clean up! They are waiting and watching for anything to happen, and it did! She has cleaned up, recorded a new record, and started getting positive stories written about her. Not to mention she has a hit single currently. I would say that's great PR!