On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to see Lady Gaga in concert at the AT&T Center. I’ve been a Lady Gaga fan since the beginning. In October 2009, my mother and I flew to New York and watched her first performance on Saturday Night Live (thanks to Kenan Thompson) with Madonna and saw her talent first hand up close and personal. Ever since then we’ve watched her career blow up in front of the world and remained fans.

Tuesday was another reminder as to why I love Lady Gaga so much. Twice during her concert she asked her fans to donate to a charity she cares deeply about and said she would match every donation up to $25,000. Wow! And to think she does this every night! Not only is this woman talented and puts on an amazing show, but she gives back to those in need. And that my friends is someone I can whole heartedly admire.

On April 14th we will be having our annual wine tasting event, which benefits Guadalupe Home. This year we changed the location (it’s only a block away from our old location) and will be using a new wine distributor, so we can offer a larger variety of wines.

If you’re interested in joining please let me know. Tickets are $25 per person and $30 at the door. There will be plenty of food to snack on as well and you can see pictures of our new home opening in May, as well as meet some of the moms and babies we help. Hope to see you there!

This year we will be opening a brand new Guadalupe Home location that will be able to house double the homeless mothers and babies that we are able to help now. Our goal is to be able to offer the public an opportunity to see the new home before it opens in May or June, depending on construction. If you’re interested in seeing the home before it opens and/or joining us at our grand opening please let me know and I’ll be happy to pass along the details. And as always if you’d like to make a donation, I can assist with that as well.

Thank you to The Grill at Leon Springs for their support in the Parade of Kettles! This Friday and Saturday (17 and 18) I will be at The Grill at Leon Springs from 6-9 pm accepting donations for my kettle. I was also provided with a gift certificate, so on my morning interview with KABB Fox 29 I will announce that the first person to donate $100 to my kettle will receive that gift certificate! (Of course I’ll be bringing Jose from The Salvation Army with me for safety reasons.)

For more information about The Grill at Leon Springs click here.

Tis the season for donations! So who should you donate to? And where does that money REALLY go?

Working in the legal industry a majority of my e-mails, regarding my participation in the Parade of Kettles campaign, have gone to several attorneys and judges. Today I had a well known attorney respond to my e-mail with some information he thought I should share. When I read the information I was speechless. And then … and then I was proud. So now I pass it on to you.

Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross… Salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses. (That’s $74.42 an hour for EVERY hour of EVERY day.)

Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary, plus numerous expense benefits. (That’s $42.80 an hour for EVERY hour of EVERY day.) 

UNICEF CEO receives $1,200,000 per year plus all expenses and a ROLLS ROYCE car wherever he goes. (That’s $1,369.86 an hour for EVERY hour of EVERY day.)

The Salvation Army’s Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing a $2 BILLION dollar organization.

Now can you see why the slogan “Doing The Most Good” truly does fit The Salvation Army? Click here to donate to my Salvation Army online kettle.

Today is exactly one week of the second annual Parade of Kettles campaign and the numbers are absolutely amazing! In the first 4 days of the Parade of Kettles campaign, we were able to increase donations by 220% from last year! And no that is NOT a typo.

This morning I went to The Salvation Army to drop off more donations and was told right now we have raised a little over $12,000.00! How wonderful is that?!  A huge thank you is in order for everyone participating and to April Ancira as well. April has raised over $3,700.00 so far on her own and is a motivation for me on many levels. Right now I have raised $502.26 (and yes I am proud of every penny I’ve raised) and continue to try and raise more. From flyers at Starbucks, apartment complexes and restaurants, to my infamous mass e-mails and phone calls, and even going to the mall with my kettle; April has challenged me to try and go above and beyond my normal fundraising tactics to try and help The Salvation Army.

Next week our media exposure will go full force, so we expect to see more donations and raise even more awareness of this campaign. (Tune in to KABB Fox News with Shaun Stevens on the 15th from 7-9 am (we’ll be at Wal-Mart receiving a $50,000.00 check!), WOAI’s San Antonio Living with Shelly Miles on the 16th and KENS5′s Great Day SA with Bridget Smith on the 22nd.)

Thank you again to everyone who has helped this campaign become an instant success! And if you’d like to donate to my online kettle simply click here.

This Saturday I went to Ingram Park Mall in hopes of generating more donations for my kettle. Having little expectations I was excited when I found out that instead of being in front of a department store, I was set up in the center of the mall by Santa! Then to make things even better, KONO 101 was there to help with media exposure, some great tunes and wonderful people to talk to.  (It really is a small world when the radio show hosts remember you from two other events over a year ago!)

The hour and a half I was there went by quickly and I noticed something during that time. There are two kinds of people. One is the person who is happy to help even if it’s just by donating a dollar. This person is usually the person who has their young child put the money in the kettle as well (if they have a child of course). The other is the person who refuses to even make eye contact with you if you simply say hello, and thinks if they pretend you aren’t there then maybe you really don’t exist. After my mall experience, I started to think maybe my fundraising techniques need some creativity.

Over the weekend I created a flyer. My flyer has all the information about the Parade of Kettles and at the very bottom are slips with the website information for people to take and donate to my online kettle. With the help of Starbucks and their community board, I have now started to place these flyers throughout the city. So now what? I don’t want to wait for results, so I’m thinking maybe I should talk to restaurants about letting me stand by the hostess stand with my kettle and a sign letting people know what I’m doing. The sky is the limit. I’m sure I’ll come up with even more genious ideas. Until then, I’m on a roll and it’s all in the name of charity!

Click here to donate to my online kettle.

It has begun! After a wonderful Parade of Kettles 2010 debut party at the Emily Morgan Hotel, the fundraising has officially started. And Mrs. April Ancira has not held back. In the last 24 hours she is now at $2,300.00! How amazing is that?! This year I have devoted myself to The Salvation Army campaign, so in an effort to keep up with April I will take my fundraising to the streets!

Saturday December 4th, I will be at Ingram Park Mall with KONO 101 with my kettle raising funds as the holiday shoppers arrive. And don’t worry if you don’t have any cash on you I’ll have the credit card machine with me. That’s right you can donate using any major card and I’ll even hand you a receipt right then and there!

Click here to view and donate to my kettle.

Click here to view the Parade of Kettles participants on The Salvation Army San Antonio website.  

Last year I was blessed to be a part of the first ever Parade of Kettles in San Antonio, Texas. The Parade of Kettles began as a group of local celebrities or “Who’s Who” along with well known companies each doing their best to raise funds for The Salvation Army. Each person or company decorated their own kettle and had an online donation link on The Salvation Army website. At the last hour, I came in second place to April Ancira losing by $100.00. I’m proud to say I was referred to as The Little Mexican That Could during that campaign.

This year I was asked again to participate and even more well known individuals and companies have joined to make this year even better. With that said, I’m going to need even more help so I can come in first! (On December 2nd we will unveil our kettles and announce the companies and individuals participating. More details on that ceremony will be coming at a later time.)

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ll be decorating my kettle. This year I’m going to name it The Little Kettle That Could, slightly changing my nickname from last year. I also plan on creating a few flyers to leave in some local businesses to generate more awareness to the campaign. If you’d like to have a flyer at your place of business, please contact me through the website.

Have a great holiday season and I’ll post more about the Parade of Kettles unveiling ceremony when I have details.

This year Fandango went smoothly and was another year reminding me of how important Guadalupe Home is. We’re blessed to have another home donated to us, so we can help double the mothers and babies that we have now. Of course with such an amazing  donation comes the necessity to raise even more money to keep our doors open. Thank you again to everyone who helped make the event a success and I can’t wait for next board meeting when I get to find out how much money we raised!