The process began in the winter of 2001 by finding
seven significant turn of the century houses
in the area in which the owners generously allowed their
homes to be open to the public for the one day event.
We designed and paid for the printing of the
invitations to a patrons dinner which was held
the night before the house tour. Food, wine and live
music were donated by local businesses, friends and
neighbors. The father of one of the students cooked
"gourmet delights" for days! Over 200 people
attended and each person paid $50 for the fun event.
The evening was a huge success.
To guarantee that the house tour was a huge monetary
success, we designed, printed, mailed and paid
for over 10,000 invitations. These were sent
to friends, neighbors, clients, customers, and alumni.
We also blanketed the surrounding neighborhood with
these invitations. We also designed, printed
and paid for tickets and brochures for the event. Each
ticket sold for $10 apiece.
We also placed ads in the local and city wide
newspapers. In addition to the ads, we
also arranged for editors of local publications to write
articles about the event.
We designed, paid for and had constructed ten
sturdy metal signs that were placed in the
front yard of each house that was on the tour. It is
a handsome sign that has an etching of the historic
school. And to match this, we also designed
and had arrows made that were placed at the
corner of each and every street so that there was great
exposure for the many cars passing by for several weeks
before the tour.
During the house tour we had a huge bake sale
in our front yard. The school children and
their parents donated the delicious items and helped
man the stand during the house tour. We arranged
for the authors of books on the history of the area
to be on hand to both speak and sell their books.
Over a thousand people attended the event and as a
result the children of Dora Moore Elementary will have
both an art teacher and a music teacher for the coming
year. |
