Pam Parmakian posted on June 28, 2011 12:47
The Celebrity Walker Program is intended to raise awareness about the Walk, to allow various institutions such as businesses, restaurants, churches, families, fraternal organizations, etc. to recognize and/or honor someone of their choosing, and to attract more media attention to the Walk.
And example as to how this program would work is: a church in the Overnights of Hospitality Program might want to recognize an outstanding volunteer, or every church in the Overnights Program might want to recognize one of their Overnights volunteers. Each church could place a basket at the church doors during May and/or June to receive donations towards their $500. This way, the funds for honoring their special volunteer would come from the parishioners and not the church (which may not be able to afford it). The Churches might decide to let the Overnight volunteers in their church select who they would like to be their celebrity. The “celebrity would walk a 4 or 5-mile segment of the Walk and the church would pay $500. Both the church and the “celebrity” would receive a special Walk Tee Shirt that named both the celebrity and the sponsor. The agency that solicited a particular sponsor would keep the $500 just as each agency now keeps what it raises.
Other examples could be a realtor wanting to recognize a recent buyer or an outstanding realtor in his/her office; a family might want to have a parent or child be their “celebrity”, a bank might want to recognize a special teller or other employee, a retailer might want to recognize a special employee. The celebrity would walk one of the approximately 4 or 5 mile segments of the Walk and the sponsor would pay $500 for the opportunity to name the celebrity walker.
A restaurant might have a drawing during May or June for their “celebrity”. The day their celebrity walks, the restaurant could invite the celebrity and their spouse or significant other for a free dinner. Pictures could be taken and used to promote the restaurant.
The agencies that participate in the Walk are the ones who must solicit sponsors for the celebrity walkers. However, one sponsor could help solicit other sponsors.
With the cooperation of Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, I plan on developing an ad for the CC Times that will name the celebrity Walkers and their sponsors for each day and the ad(s) will run during Walk week. I also hope we can get the media to attend some of the Walk sessions and take pictures of the celebrity walkers.
I believe this program will attract more donors from a larger donor base, will ultimately raise more money, will raise more awareness about the issue and about the Walk, and should prove more beneficial to the sponsors.
See attached documents below.