Events

We are having two Bink-a-Thons October 8. One in Monroe, Connecticut, and one in Beaverton, Oregon.  A little friendly competition never hurts, right? I really want to win. Jeanne Malgioglio usually wins. But really who wins? The kids who will get the binkies we are all making that day.  This is a fun opportunity to  connect multiple chapters. This is a great idea for other hands-on charities that have multiple locations. We will most likely be broadcasting live that day on Facebook and YouTube. This is a short episode just for fun and a little spunky.  You can sign up for the Beaverton, OR event here. 
A Bink-A-Thon is an event where we gather as many people as possible to make as many blankets as possible within 4 to 6 hours. Blankets can be sewn or tied. We usually have a couple of dozen people on sewing machines, many people helping with pinning, cutting, tying, bagging. There is something for everyone to do. We've been doing these since our first year in 1996 and they end up being more like a reunion for the volunteers who attend every one of them. We've more than 25 here in Oregon since we moved here 17 years ago.

Having events is a great way to expand your audience, donors, volunteers, and build goodwill in the community. Since Binky Patrol is all-volunteer, we rely on partnering with sponsors and hosting organizations that are looking for a fun event to offer their volunteers, employees, members. This episode walks you through some ideas, and a list of what you need to know before you have an event.
If you want to have an event, find partners. For Binky Patrol, we partner with United Way, HandsOn Portland, Comcast, quilt guilds, girl scouts and schools. Local coffee companies like Dutch Bros, sandwich companies like Subway help keep our volunteers fed and energized. You also need a partner to help you at the end of your event. We have our delivery team that will take all of the blankets made that day to deliver them. We have a clean up crew that will take everything to put it away until the next event. You need to plan it from start to finish, before promotions and after thank you notes.

We are still one world and sometimes one very spread out company. A great way to get to know each other is through team-building events, but what can you do that will allow each location to get to know the other locations? An event where you work with one or more charities, perhaps make blankets live, have a guest speaker from the place your teams will deliver their blankets, have a relay benefitting a charity in those big inflatable balls at each location simultaneously rolling in a field. Well, you get it. The ideas coming out of our heads are endless, not very expensive, a lot of fun and build great memories, as well as help you retain talent.  Join Susan and Lisa for this 20-minute event idea firehose. If you have questions, want to talk about more ideas, let them know!

There is no replacing the in-person experience of laughter, and compassion. Time to dip a toe into these events again through speaking, team building, 5Ks, and more! Lisa and Susan go through some ideas to make it easy for you to do what you are comfortable with and will tell you some of their experience at Race for the Cure events, corporate team building, quilt guilds, and even ski events. It's time to get back out there and really connect with your communities!
From sewing blankets on-site during a Race for the Cure, to golf tournaments, and competitive events, they could all use some warmth from your charity. At least that's what Lisa and Susan think in this episode. They share stories from at least a dozen events where Binky Patrol was exposed to entirely new audiences, kept the crowds entertained and made some blankets at the same time. Tune in.