Reception and Updates

For those of you who made it last week to the Bravery Reception at Fresh Start, thank you! It was a very long day of hanging artwork, preparing food, setup, and nerves. Overall, a great success in my book with one exception: Due to running the event, I didn't get to spend much time with the visitors, especially the Bravery survivors. Now that I have experience behind the scenes at these events, the next time will certainly be easier and better.

The people who volunteered to help me were absolutely wonderful. The speakers, Faustine Chan and Lisa Kim, did great and Maria Elena Ochoa is a warm and very nice individual with an amazing track record for helping the underpriviledged groups of the community. I was so honored to have her there. She even presented Bravery with a proclamation signed by Governor Janet Napolitano, testifying that our elected officials do pay attention to our efforts to help others. It may not seem like it sometimes, but everything we do makes a difference and especially when we try to make work easier by taking action in the community.

If you didn't make it to the reception and want to see the artwork, 20 pieces will be on display until the 24th of October and 9 pieces are in the MCC Library lobby until the 31st of Oct.

Updates

We are slowly getting in some donations, but not much. We are less than 20% of our donation goal unfortunately, but the state of the economy is working against all fundraising efforts everywhere. A little something is better than nothing.

You may have noticed that the online auction items have dwindled off in part due to companies backing out of donations at this time and due to Ebay policies on gift certificates. Currently, one item is a portrait of yourself for a fraction of what it would normally cost. Next week will conclude the final listing, so take a look.

There are some very exciting projects coming down the pike that you are sure to enjoy, so please stay with me as I resume this blog and continue to think and work creatively.

Faith and Fire

Sometimes the stars seem to align for us. We become determined to take action, go through the motions and before we know it, success. That faith and fire inside can propel us to do amazing things and that is just how I would describe the Art Salon for a Cause.

People left the salon enlightened, disturbed, encouraged, and supportive of domestic violence issues. A few survivors came out of the DV closet and shared their stories with me and one woman in crisis came to me for help, which she is getting. Bravery is working.

Our three day event managed to pull over 160 people who enjoyed wonderful live music, delicious gourmet (even homemade) food, and beautiful art in every room of the 5,500 sq foot luxury home. We had wonderful sponsors, volunteers, and we received media attention from the East Valley Tribune, AZ Republic, The Wrangler News, KJZZ radio, East Valley Radio Station, and all the other websites that helped promote our event. Most amazing to me is the $1,500 in scholarship money from the silent auction.

Earlier this week, Bravery cohosted the Arts and Advocates reception at Cup O' Karma (formally Into the Bean) and awarded the very first Bravery Scholarship to Melissa Nudi. She is a mom, DV survivor, and an MCC student who plans to enter the medical field. Bravery raised $500 and MCC matched the funds to give her $1,000. I am a huge advocate of education and am so honored to help another person in this capacity and Melissa is a perfect example of what Bravery is all about.

The other scholarship will be given through Tempe Dollars for Scholars and will go to a Tempe High School student to attend college. Currently, we are working on candidates and will announce him/her in the coming months. I would very much like the Bravery Scholarship to become a staple of the program because an education is one of the keys to a better life and has become more expensive (college credit prices have doubled in the past decade).

I've been getting emails about the online auction through Ebay Giving Works and I will admit that many of the wonderful donations were sold in the silent auction, but the online auction will resume next week. If you have something you would like to contribute on behalf of Bravery to help us reach our goal, please feel free to participate. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the auction blog to stay updated on coming items.

Most importantly, please share Bravery with others by sending them links to the website, subscribe to the blog, donate, and bid online. Together we can make a difference...all it takes is a little faith and fire!

Bravery Online Gallery and Auction

The launch of the online Bravery gallery is live as of August 1st. I decided to begin the viewing earlier than October in order to build momentum for the website and collect donations. Unfortunately my online pay client account is not active yet, but should be on August 4th. Once the pay client is active,there will be a ChipIn widget on the front page that you can copy the html code and embed it into your own website, myspace, or blog to help Bravery meet the $100,000 goal. This is a lofty goal but I know we can reach it together.

Because of this early launch, all the portraits are not live yet, but will be up during the first couple weeks of August. Additionally, the gallery and auction page will be continually updated. I will keep you in formed when everything is complete. In the meantime I encourage you to view the art, read the stories, and share the website.

The auction will be through MissionFish/Ebay and is set for open bidding on September 1st to allow for more in-kind donations to come in. There is also a new blog specifically for the Bravery Auction that you can subscribe by email to stay updated on the new additions to the auction and where we are in the donation pool. This subscription is identical to the blog subscription at dvportraits.blogspot.com. There are some really wonderful items to bid on and it keeps getting better.

Please offer me feedback or ideas. I value your opinion. Happy viewing!