Governor’s Challenge

What’s the Governor’s Challenge??? It’s our 6th fundraiser. The Governor challenged Oregon state employees to each donate or pledge at least $144 during the Governor’s State Employees Food Drive. And he makes it easy for us to meet the challenge through a one-time payroll deduction, a monthly payroll deduction of at least $12 per month (for one year), or a one-time cash donation. At the end of the Food Drive, those individuals who meet the Governor’s Challenge will be recognized.

So I challenged each employee in my office to live without $12 each month and meet the Governor’s Challenge.

Today is the final day of the Food Drive. This weekend I will be counting the coins and bills from our Change for Food jar, adding in the donations from the St. Valentine’s Day Auction, the $10 Challenge and the Governor’s Challenge – then I will weigh all the food collected at the office, convert the weight to a dollar amount and come up with a grand total for our office’s contribution to the Marion-Polk Food Share (food bank). I’ll have a $ number some time this weekend…

Food Pyramid

Did you know that the Food Pyramid has changed? The Food Pyramid was developed by the US Department of Agriculture as a tool to help families make healthy food choices. The Food Pyramid helps in choosing a variety of foods to get the nutrients needed and to control the amount of calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar and sodium. Oregonians that are struggling with adequate food supplies may not be able to “eat healthy” due to limited resources.

And that is where the 5th fundraiser for my office comes in. We already had quite a collection of food and today I challenged everyone to the following:

1) look through the foods we have already collected
2) see what else we need to build our own Food Pyramid in the office
3) bring in some more food and build a pyramid!

In response to the challenge, this afternoon one of the attorneys went to the store and donated a GIANT bag of beans. We placed them at the base of the pyramid…it’ll be interesting to see if the beans make for a “shaky” base or not. Pictures to follow this week!

p.s. Steve Cotton dropped by my office late this afternoon. He’s looking good and headed back to Mexico. But he’ll be back soon and we hope to get together!

$10 Challenge

Did you know that just $10 provides a 3-5 day supply of food for a family?

Did you know that for every dollar, Oregon Food Bank can collect and distribute about 5 pounds of food?

Did you know that less than 5% of Oregon Food Bank’s general fund goes to administration, including fundraisers?

The 4th fundraiser for my office is a challenge to each person in my office to donate $10 to the Food Drive. As you can see from the stats above a mere $10 goes a long way in terms of providing food to our neighbors.

I launched this yesterday and so far I have $30!

Love is in the Air

I awoke to a beautiful Valentine’s Day card (signed by both my husband and my dog), my favorite (and hard to find) perfume and coffee in bed. Shortly after coffee we layered on warm clothes, grabbed our hats and gloves, and headed for Lincoln City on the Oregon coast.

We gassed up, got more coffee at the gas station and drove west for the hour or so it takes to get to Lincoln City from Salem. We ate breakfast at Lil’ Sambos (not related to the Sambos Restaurants from the 1960s, but based on the same story – weird) and the place was packed with Valentine’s Day breakfast diners.

With tummies full we headed to the beach. The waves were HUGE! And strong. The tide was coming in and we saw a few people get their feet wet when they weren’t able to run from the water. It was COLD!!! We waited around for the predicted coastal storm, but it never happened - just a little rain.


Later this afternoon Betty and Ron got all gussied up for their big Valentine’s Day evening out at Morton’s – a fine dining restaurant here in West Salem. We snapped pictures before the lovebirds headed out. Don’t they look fab?!

The Cake That Just Keeps Giving…

Our Valentine’s Day Auction was a great success - and fun! Plus, we made $132.25 for the Food Drive.

We have 10 people in our office and we ended up with 11 items to auction. I was so happy that everyone participated. In addition to Betty’s triple-layer chocolate cake, Mike’s double chocolate & chocolate chip cookies, the bird feeder, the okra and the “mystery item” (more about that below), we had a trio of different homemade hazelnut cookies, a bag o’ goodies (candy), more chocolate chip cookies, a handmade coupon book (something you give to your sweetie and your sweetie tears out “coupons” for things like a foot rub, breakfast in bed, a movie date, etc.), and 2 bottles of wine. What a selection!


Mike brought a mallet that doubled as a gavel and we were ready to begin. Doesn’t he look so handsome all in black?! This week Mike and I listened to some professional auctioneers on YouTube and Mike got the hang of it right off the bat. (He’s available for local auctions if you need an auctioner...hahaha)


The funniest item turned out to be the crisp okra pickles which had a $20 opening bid (opening bids were at the discretion of the donor) - it was snapped up quickly after a short bidding war and went for $25!!! Go figure. And the person who got it has never even seen okra.


My favorite item (and the one I got for the bargain price of $25) was the window bird feeder and seed. The other neat thing I got was the handmade coupon book that was made by the other Legal Secretary. But Mike has to wait at least until Sunday until he turns in that breakfast in bed coupon!


And the “mystery item”??? (I cannot believe that NO ONE in my office realized that I secretly donated that red and white polka dotted package with the pretty red and white bows and ribbon!!!) But to continue the story, we have a new attorney in our office and she just started on Tuesday. She got into the bidding war for the “mystery item” and wound up with it for $10. I felt a little bad when she carefully unwrapped the double-wrapped package and found that she spent $10 for a package of Harley Davidson temporary tattoos. But heck, HD is American made and any woman should be proud to wear an HD tattoo! Well, that’s my opinion anyway. She was a very good sport about it!


Lastly, and back to the title of this post, Betty’s triple-layer, chocolate cake with chocolate filling (and secret, hidden chocolate chips), and a crème frosting went to one of the attorneys (a former chef and current "hobby baker") who had been instructed by her family members that she must bid on and “win” this cake or not come home. Needless to say, she got the cake and took it home for her family to share. But the surprise was that the cake was sooooo big that her family barely made a dent in it. So the attorney brought it back into the office today and “sold” (for the Food Drive) slices for $1 and slivers for $0.25 – what a great idea! Everyone was drooling over the cake yesterday so it was cool to see the cake again today. I got a big slice and it was YUMILICIOUS!


HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE! Check back and I'll tell you about my next fundraising event that I'll launch next week.

St. Valentine’s Day Auction

The 3rd fundraiser for my office is an auction! I asked everyone in the office to donate an item to be auctioned to raise money for the Food Drive. Today at noon we will have an auction at the conference table.

Initially, I asked for “sweet treats” like cookies, cupcakes, brownies...but when one person brought in a can of crisp okra pickles I opened up the auction to include anything. With that option, another person brought in a window bird feeder + seed and a second person brought in a beautifully wrapped “mystery item.”

Plus, Betty whipped up a yummy heart-shaped triple-layer chocolate cake with chocolate filling, crème frosting, covered with red sprinkles and those crazy heart-shaped candies with little messages on them. And Ron created a carrier for the cake so it doesn't get squished.

Not to be outdone, Mike stayed up late last night baking double chocolate, chocolate chip cookies! And Mike will be our auctioneer!!

I brought my camera and intend to take lots of pics. Check back to see how we did! (p.s. That window bird feeder would go perfectly on the window at my desk...)

Foods We Need

The 2nd fundraiser for my office is about collecting food donations.

Donating food provides a direct connection between the person who donates and the hungry person who receives the food. The food donation is tangible and reminds you that hungry people are just like you and me. At the end of the Food Drive we’ll weigh the donated food and convert the weight to a dollar value.

The Change for Food collection is coming along…see the pic below and notice the side shot.



Here is the bin for the food dontatons...see the crazy poster? I'm not sure what "super guy" has to do with the Food Drive...???

Change for Food

My first fundraising idea is pretty basic. I have a big, empty, 1 gallon cherry jar on my desk. And during the whole month of February I am challenging the people in my office to throw the change that jingles in their pocket (or purse) into the jar. At the end of the month we’ll have a contest guessing how much $$ we have collected. And I have a real neat prize for that!