Case Studies

GMCH and NBC Skating Spectacular and Community Skate Day

This example has a lot of moving parts, so please bear with us.

It began with an unlikely meeting with Mike Egan, whose company maintains the grass at AT&T Park. Mike became interested in GMCH and wanted to be involved in using his company’s business and clientele to help raise money for the House. To that end, Mike also engaged a friend of his, The Honorable Wayne Seybold, Mayor of Marion, Indiana, and a 1968 Olympic pairs figure skater. From this unlikely beginning, we had the seed of an idea that would bring GMCH national awareness, and local good will and attention. Tons of it, literally. We were going to put an ice rink in AT&T Park, fill it with professional skaters and music, and sell the whole package to NBC.

I met with Mike and Mayor Seybold in September of 2007, along with San Francisco Giants Operations Director, George Costa and Pat Gallagher, former General Manager of Giants Enterprises. Once these gentlemen had taken a tour of the GMCH, their commitment to and engagement with the cause was complete. From there, Steve Disson from Disson Skating who had time on NBC agreed with Brian to highlight GMCH as the charity,. We jointly developed the “NBC Skating Spectacular with Brian Boitano with Barry Manilow as the musical accompaniment. I also invited Brian and Dorothy to GMCH for a tour to see the children and families first hand and set up press interviews, and they, too, responded warmly to the mission of the house and the families there.

Developing the opportunity and the relationships with the all the entities involved in this effort was a huge undertaking in and of itself. However, we really wanted to extend the show to the wider local community audience in a unique and memorable way. With that goal in mind, we approached the Giants and asked them if they would agree to donate the ball park for a Holiday Family Skate Day. They generously agreed without even a meeting and the invitation list quickly grew to include referring provider hospitals, their children and families, community partners, volunteers, staff, local legislators and their families, Sharkie from the San Jose Sharks, and of course, Santa.

With a video we’d developed playing on the jumbo screen in the park, and yellow scarves that identified staff and volunteers, we put on a delightful day for local children’s hospitals, their patients and our own children and families. The press loved it, to. We had all the local press we could possibly handle on the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20167241_2,00.html

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