Help Me Change the Outcome!

This is a lengthy post, but an impor­tant one. I ask that you please read it in its entirety.

Recently, I joined the board of the West­ern Ohio Epilepsy Foun­da­tion. I attended by first board meet­ing two weeks ago. At that meet­ing, I learned that:

1. The Foun­da­tion is short on cash, and fac­ing a poten­tial bud­get crisis.
2. I am the new mar­ket­ing chair.
3. I need to come up with a way to help raise sev­eral thou­sand dol­lars to keep the foun­da­tion afloat.

This foun­da­tion is an amaz­ing orga­ni­za­tion. It helps to serve the needs of indi­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies try­ing to deal with Epilepsy. The EFWO helps peo­ple who peo­ple with epilepsy, many of whom live below the poverty line, to get infor­ma­tion, med­ica­tion, and med­ical care. The group defends the rights of those with epilepsy, and works toward the goal of “not another moment” lost to seizures.

Why did I choose to get involved with this orga­ni­za­tion? My infant son was diag­nosed with epilepsy last year. Watch­ing him fight through seizure after seizure has inspired me to take action. Let me tell you, when your kid is hav­ing as many as 50 seizures a day, you have to do some­thing. So, know that I am not doing this to “pad my resume”, or to “fur­ther my net­work.” This is a per­sonal cru­sade. Not only do I hope to make his life bet­ter, but I hope that by get­ting involved in the fight against epilepsy, that I can make life dif­fer­ent for other fam­i­lies, other chil­dren, other par­ents, and for any­one afflicted with epilepsy. We spend a lot of time work­ing with the amaz­ing peo­ple in the Neu­rol­ogy Depart­ment at Cincin­nati Children’s . I men­tion this because they have a mantra that I love. “Change the Out­come.” I now share that goal.

So, I turn to you and ask for help. How? I need you to talk, email, and eat pan­cakes. Let me elaborate…

First, I need help spread­ing the word about an event we are putting together on the morn­ing of March 22^nd. The event is a Pan­cake Break­fast. Here are the details:

WHAT: Pan­cake Break­fast and Easter Egg Hunt
WHERE: F&S Harley David­son. 7220 North Dixie Drive, Day­ton, Ohio 45414.
WHEN: Sat­ur­day, March 22^nd, 2008 8:00AM — 11:00AM
HOW MUCH: $6.00 for Adults / $4.00 for kids under 12
WHAT ELSE: There will be Pan­cakes, Sausage, Milk, OJ, Cof­fee, Prizes Raf­fled, A 50/50 Draw­ing, an Easter Egg Hunt and more.

S0… Please come. Please for­ward a link to this page to oth­ers, and ask them to come. (Let me know you are com­ing if you like by fill­ing out the con­tact form on this site). If you write a blog, please link to this post, or com­pose your own post telling oth­ers about the cause. Please help me change the outcome.

If you own a busi­ness and would like to donate to the event please let me know or con­tact the foun­da­tion directly at 937−233−2500. We are in need of food dona­tions for the break­fast as well as items for the raf­fle and the Easter egg hunt. We are pulling this together quickly, so no for­mal mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als have been devel­oped — quite frankly we could not afford them any­way. Although, what bet­ter medium could there be than a weblog? A real blog, by a real per­son, who is really involved in the cause.

Finally, if you are look­ing to make a dif­fer­ence in the world, I ask that you con­sider join­ing me. As the newly appointed chair of the Mar­ket­ing Com­mit­tee, a com­mit­tee that does not go far beyond me, I am look­ing for ener­getic, cre­ative, pas­sion­ate peo­ple who believe they can change the world. I know I do. Help me make a dif­fer­ence. More impor­tantly, help change the out­come of some­one who has epilepsy. I don’t care if you are not a mar­keter, I need peo­ple who want to help — regard­less of back­ground. I need peo­ple to serve on the mar­ket­ing com­mit­tee. I need peo­ple to help solicit dona­tions. I need peo­ple help run and plan events. Help me change the out­come… and the world.

Thank you,
David E. Bowman

UPDATE:

The event now has its own web site. Visit http://www.PancakesPancakes.com

You can RSVP, get all the event info, vol­un­teer your help, donate items for raf­fle, and donate money directly to the Epilepsy Foun­da­tion of West­ern Ohio. Check it out, and thanks again for your con­tin­ued support.