Invisible Children, Moi Moi, and Grilled Cheese

I can't believe October is almost over! Really it's been a beautiful last few weeks so I hope it stays this way a little longer. Our meeting was pretty short and was mainly focused on watching the original Invisible Children video, which you can watch in its entirety here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643#). Also, we celebrated Liz Van Loon's birthday a little early with an awesome cake (her real birthday is today- Happy Birthday Liz!). Aside from that, I want to remind all of you to get out there and find sponsors. Ashley Miller found our first sponsor: The Holiday Day Inn donated a free one night stay for two as a raffle prize for the race, worth at least a couple hundred dollars. Congratulations, Ashley! If you've already called the businesses you signed up for and want more, just email SLIM with your name and I'll give you some more around where you were before.

Finally, we've got multiple events coming up with other clubs that will help fundraise for SLIM.

ASO present Taste of Africa

Tuesday, November 3rd

WPU Ballroom

SLIM will be giving a presentation about our work with AIDS in Malawi and our friend Siamak will also talk about his work as a physician overseas. Come eat, drink, and dance!

Hodge Podge

Friday, November 20th

WPU- Nordy's Place

This is an event SLIM will be co-ordinating with Feel Good possibly including some bands and more.

Git Sum Sponsors!

Hope all of your classes are going well and that you all filled up on the pizza from last night (good call Liz!). As you all know this is the season for finding our sponsors for the SLIM 5K/10K in the spring, so those of you that have already contacted the businesses you signed up for, please post a comment on the blog under the big posting so I know what's been done. I will assign you more businesses in your borough, so keep your eyes on that blog post. Next week I will bring that list for everyone to sign up for more.

Since many of you haven't done much soliciting we split up into small groups and practiced talking to potential sponsors. For those of you that couldn't come to the meeting, a sheet of suggestions is attached to the email. The biggest thing is to get to the point, "I'm (your name) and I'm a student at Pitt representing an organization that runs a 5K/10K each year in South Park to raise money for a large project in southeastern Africa. Last year we had around 600 runners and we expect to have upwards of 1000 runners this year. I think your business would really benefit from the publicity you will get from sponsoring this race." Something like that. We also have constructed teams of people for each borough and these teams will compete to get the most sponsors. The team with the most gets a sweet prize:

TEAM SHADYSIDE: Meredith Kemgan, Jessa Koch, Cathy House, Danielle Sorrells, Chelsea D'Angelo, Christina Rak

GROUP AWESOME: Miranda Velikoff, Alexis Hoyt, Bethany Ground, Vivian Liang, Suzanne Cake

NICK'S GROUP: Bethany Ground, Nick Brink, Fatima Muhammed-Ighile

CLIF'S GROUP: Valerie Michael, Zoe Cesarz, Carly Sedlock, Clif McKee

TEAM A: Charles Pratt, Cory Malagise, Bill Grubb

If you weren't here and need a group or are in a group and need email addresses for your group, send SLIM an email (slim.pitt@gmail.com) with your name and email and what you need. If you signed up for businesses in a certain borough, I'll put you with a group with other people from that borough.

If a business wants to sponsor:

1. Send an email to the SLIM email account telling who, what, how much, etc.
2. Make checks payable to "Student Leaders in International Medicine"
3. Get logos ASAP (.jpg or .gif format, please) and send them to SLIM
4. Tell them terms of sponsorship are negotiable i.e., if they cannot pay everything to be on the banner but make an additional donation of food, they could still get on the banner

I encourage the groups to try and go out this week or this weekend and work together to get all of your sponsors. Things are easier in a group and you'll have moral support. Speak with the manager face-to-face because that's the best way to be personable and to ensure that he/she remembers you. There is a group going to the Pitt homecoming game this Sunday to get donations for the race at the tailgating parties. We hope this will be really lucrative and if you want to go, send SLIM an email and we'll let you know all the details.

Phew! Ok and some other upcoming things:

Peace Corps Info Session
Wednesday Oct. 21
4130 Posvar Hall, 2-3pm
Anne Naggy
Peace Corps Representative at Pitt:
pcorps@pitt.edu
412-648-7424

Also, the Center for Strategic and International Studies is having a Global Health Essay Contest for $500-$1000:
http://www.smartglobalhealth.org/pages/essay-signup

African Student Organization African Food Festival

Nov. 3, 8-11 pm, WPU Ballroom

This is going to be a lot of fun. Mujidat is currently working with ASO so that SLIM can do a lot of promoting and share in the profits. Mark your calendar, more details later.

Potential Sponsors

I went last Thursday to Say Cheese Pizza Company, Lulu's Noodles, and Belaggio Pizza (Oakland Cafe on 315 North Craig no longer exists, I guess). I haven't called them back yet, so I don't know if they will agree to be sponsors or not.

Race Promotion Assignments

I encourage you all to start talking with each other and work together on some of these projects, especially with talking to other schools.

Organizing flyering parties- Alexis Hoyt, Ellyn Mayher

Uploading info on SLIM website- Ashley Miller, Maggie To, Lauren Miller

Posting race info on race websites- Clif

Liasons to universities/high schools- Tawny, Chelsea D'Angelo, Brittany Garove, Danielle

Keeping tabs on SLIM members with getting sponsors- Fatima, Bill Grubb

Calling parties- Colleen Moroney, Shae

Business Solicitation Assignments

Hey all! Here are the businesses you signed up to solicit. This will be a running list and I will edit this post as businesses are checked off the list. There are still lots of businesses that nobody has signed up for so I'll bring the list to the next meeting.

Past sponsors:

Fleet Feet- already done

KPHP- Liz

John McGinnis- Liz

Iron City Bikes- Clif

Tijuana Flats- Liz

Liquid Vision- Sesi

Road ID- Clif

Health Trax- Emily Riley

Massage Envy- Liz

Venture Outdoors- Sesi

Saucony- Mujidat

Mizuno- Clif

Powerbar- Christina

South Hills:

South Hills Central Blood Bank- Jenny Gutauskas

Ches Anthony's Catering- Emily Riley

David Physical Therapy- Adrienne Marler

Warehouse Café- Emily Riley

South Hills Health System Center- Adrienne Marler

Shadyside:

Doc's Place- Christina Rak

Piitsburgh Deli- Christina Rak

Shadyside Saloon- Christina Rak

Moda- Christina Rak

Shadyside Market- Christina Rak

Ten Toes- Brittany Garove

Girasole- Cathy House

Prantl's Bakery- Cathy House

Amazing Yoga- Valerie Michael

Strip District:

Firehouse Lounge- Tawny Duliba

Primante Bros.- Vivian Liang

Oakland:

Pamela's- Allison Jubon

India Garden- Jeeves?

Forbes Ave. Suites- Charles Pratt

Dave's Music Mine- Joe

Qdoba- Chelsea D'Angelo

Oakland Infusion Center- Miranda

Pittsburgh Oakland Enterprise- Miranda

Oakland Café- Ellyn Mayher

Holiday Inn- Ashley Miller

Oakland Oasis Tanning Salon- Miranda

Larry & Carol's Pizza- Ian Mesa

Food for Thought Deli- Colleen Moroney

Three Rivers Fitness & Sports Medicine Center- Bethany

Luna Bar & Grill- Colleen Moroney

Primante Bros.- Jen Niecka

BaBa D's- Alexis Hoyt

Union Grill- Chelsea D'Angelo

La Fiesta- Colleen Moroney

Quaker Steak- Cory Malagise

Spice Island Tea House- Alexis Hoyt

The O- Fatima

Mad Mex- Miranda

Say Cheese Pizza Co.- Ellyn Mayher

Dave & Andy's- Steph Tokach

Veracruz Restaurant- Suzanne Cake

Fuel and Fuddle- Chelsea D'Angelo

Uncle Sam's Classic Subs- Fatima

Five Guys- Cory Malagise

Lu Lu's- Ashley Miller

Starbucks- Vivian Liang

Caribou- Leah Turner

Penn Station- Bill Grubb

Personal Health & Fitness/Miscellaneous:

Everyday Nutrition & Protein- Clif

Thermal Industries Inc.- Clif

Training Revelations- Clif

JGS Management Services- Clif

Up Stretch Pilates Studio- Miranda

Paramount Athletic Club- Miranda

Pittsburgh Voyager- Miranda

US Occupational Safety/Health- Miranda

A Cut Above Personal Training- Miranda

Curves- Carly

Southside Ironworks Gym- Carly

Post-Gazette- Valerie Michael

Children's Hospital- Fatima

TRRA- Valerie Michael

Windmills and Running Shoes

Man am I glad this week is almost over, but what a better way to come back from fall break than a SLIM meeting! As you all know (or will find out soon enough) fall and winter are busy times collecting sponsors for our 5K/10K in the spring. As members we expect all of you to solicit at least $200 from businesses in Pittsburgh or just from your family and friends. We need all of the backing we can get for this race and as we are expecting this year to be another record-breaking race (more on this later), we need to try as many businesses as possible. Attached are the sponsorship letter that should be sent to the business you are trying to attract and also a page of suggestions for making your calls to these businesses most effective. It is best that you visit these businesses in person and speak with the manager and follow up within 1-2 weeks. It would be best if you hear back from your businesses by December so all of the sponsorships can be finalized. We've divided up the businesses and the necessary jobs for race planning but if you forgot to write down what you signed up for, look for my next mailer with all that shiz on it.

Bob Shooer from our primary sponsor Fleet Feet Sports showed up to speak a little about his hopes for the 5K/10K and wow was he excited! This guy has tons of ideas! Firstly, given our breakout success with so many participants last year, he believes that we could market the race to a whole load of competitive runners in Pittsburgh. Another thing he thought of was to give all of the race packets to Pitt students before race day to prevent the huge pile-up at registration. Now that our route will be measured and certified, we could attract veteran runners that could use this as a time trial or a tune-up race in preparation for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Besides that he wants to beef up the promotion for the 10K by possibly giving those runners special shirts for the race, those high-tech, microfiber do-jobs that wick all of your sweat away. Oooooh ahhhhhh! His enthusiasm was excellent and I hope you all felt the same way and want to go out and get a load of sponsors!

Our bake sale has been put on hold for a bit, we may be planning out a new one so do don't put this cookie sheets away yet. We also have a new fundraiser coming up in callaboration with the Pitt African Students Association. They are having a large African festival in the Union Ballroom and we've been invited to have a table and sell some artwork and talk about our mission in fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa. This is November 3, Union Ballroom at 8 pm. Finally, we watched two short clips about William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi that at the age of just 14 built a windmill to provide electricity and irrigate water for his village. His story is incredible and it really shows that curiosity and ingenuity can really take anyone anywhere they want.

Daily Show interview: http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/
TEDtalks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crjU5hu2fag&feature=PlayList&p=5D4204BCB3BB50FB&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29