For the past several weeks, I have worked almost non-stop on a fund raiser promo video for STAR.  STAR (Shanghai-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding) holds a very special place in my heart.  Four years ago, after seeing the impact that Dolphin Assisted Therapy had on Katie, Leeann and I were looking for a program to get Katie into that would help her on a more consistent basis.  Katie has a long list of special needs, both medical and emotional.  We wanted to get her in a program that would build her confidence and her self-esteem and hopefully provide an extracurricular activity.

When we heard about the STAR program, we knew we had to get her in as soon as possible.  The only problem was there was a waiting list (there still is a list of 113 waiting to get in).  I think we called the STAR office about once or twice a month, we wrote letters to the Board of Directors and to the different staff members to see about getting Katie in.  It paid off and there was finally a opening that fit Katie and we were able to get her started with the winter session of 2006.

Katie instantly fell in love with the program.  We had never really seen her “look forward” to anything the way she looked forward to her weekly sessions at STAR.  She’s worked with Cocoa, Maria, Zipper and RB and she’s fallen in love with all of them.

I had volunteered a few times to help out with volunteer training videos or anything else they needed.  Well, three weeks ago, I was asked to put together the promo video for STAR’s Bridels & Blue Jeans.  This is their annual fundraiser. I was honored to be asked to produce this video and it has been a true labor of love for the past two weeks.  I have worked on this video everyday, every spare minute I could find.  I was worried about how it would play to a large group of people.

This video needed to tell the stories of the riders, the parents and the staff at STAR.  The story of how STAR had come to exist had been told for many years at this fundraising event. The amazing thing about this video is, it never felt like “work”.  The video mostly put itself together, I just put the pieces in place and the video did the rest all by itself.
It was a great success.  I don’t take the credit… but it was an amazing experience to help tell the story.

embedded by Embedded Video

Note:  The little girl with the sign “I take meds every day to stay alive” is our Katie.  Also, the photo of the little girl with pigtails pulling up on the reins in her too!

We have a wonderful 9 (soon to be 10) year old daughter, KT.  She is a wonderful and sweet little girl with an independent streak a mile long.  Sometimes that is a good thing, but other times…. well, it can be a problem.  This past Saturday morning my wife and I woke up at about 8 am thinking how quiet it was.  Everyone was sleeping a bit late and the air was cool.  A great day to just sleep in.

About 10 minutes later we heard our KT open the door to her room and come out.  My wife and I played like we were asleep to just see what she would do.  She has in the past gone downstairs and fixed herself something to eat.  She knows how to open the freezer door and get a pancake stick and nuke it for a minute. No big deal.  So, we laid in bed and listen to her open the freezer door and then close it.  We both thought the same thing, “she got a pancake stick” and were were just waiting for the microwave to start up.  But there was a long delay and no microwave sound.  We lay there thinking, “what is she doing down there?”.  Just as we were about to get up and so see what she was doing we heard a loud “SSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSSS”.  The sound a can of whip cream makes when you squirt it out.

Well, I hit the kitchen just in time to see our little KT pick up a small glass of chocolate ice cream with whipped topping on it. She looked up at me with those sweet little eyes and said “What?”.  You couldn’t help but laugh.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful young bride by the name of Corissa.  She is getting married in April.  That is not that unsuall, April is a great month here to get married. What is diffrent about Corissa is how her wedding is coming together, let me fill you in:

About a month ago, I was listening to the radio here in the office while editing some video.  The local afternoon talk guy was asking people what were they doing to save money in these tough times.  I heard all kinds of things like cutting coupons, using leftovers and on and on.  But then this female voice came on and said that she was wanting to get married this upcoming April and her parent had only given her a very limited budget and was wanting to know if anyone could help her have the wedding of her dreams for little or no money.  Well, she opened the flood gates with that one.  Wedding vendors will jump at the chance to do anything for free advertising.  We all live and die by what we put out there.  Well, first a venue stepped up and offered their site for the wedding, then a wedding planner offered her services, then a carter, then a rental company and so on.  Well, I did not want to be left out so I called in and offered to video her wedding for free.  The calls  just kept coming in by the dozens.

At the end of the hour, this girl had everything she needed for her wedding. ALL FREE!  It’s called a sponsored wedding and the way it works is you go to vendors that you want to use and tell them you will advertise their service at your wedding in return for their service at no cost.  You’re not going to get a huge diamond ring for free, but you could get the dress, food, photographs, and other services for little or no cost.  Great idea for these tough times.  Now, vendors are not going to do a lot of sponsored weddings each year, in fact, I am only doing two this year.  So don’t go out there hoping to get everything for free, but with a little bit of luck, you may be able to get some things at a lower cost.

I met Corissa for the first time today and we had a great meeting at my new favorite place “The Lounge” (I will tell you about this place in a future blog).  Corissa is looking for this wedding to be a party, and from the sound of it, it will be.  It will be a media circus as well with the radio station doing a live remote from the wedding in addition to a local TV station and the newspaper too.  I am really looking forward to this wedding, it is going to be so much fun.