Page 11 - DP1_Spring2019

New England Traditions presents
An Autumn Garden October 8–13, 2019
Join us for New England’s premiere decorative painting experience...
Great Teachers, Great Classes, Great Shopping, Fall Foliage & more!
We’re all together
UNDER ONE ROOF!
Shop in your slippers!
Painters:
ONLINE CATALOG and online registration make it easy! Join, Like & Share us on Facebook!
Businesses:
Advertise with us!
Teachers:
Thank you for your creativity and dedication to NET!
All inquiries to
Robin Prout, NET 2019 Chair chair@newenglandtraditions.org
Sponsored by the New England Chapters Council, Society of Decorative Painters
Best Western Royal Plaza, Marlborough, Mass. NET 2019 artwork by Sonja Richardson ©2018 NECC
OUR SUCCESSFUL
FUNDRAISING STORY
by Donna S. Pultz, President, Tidewater Decorative Painters
Fundraising is always an issue for chapters as we try to maintain and grow our membership. The fastest way to turn off members is to ask them to personally
finance the chapter activities out of their pockets. As the officers and board of
the Tidewater Decorative Painters pondered the need for money without asking our members for more, a wonderful solution came from SDP. The ad for Chapter Marketplace for the 2017 SDP Conference came in The Decorative Painter and in an email to me, the chapter president.
As it turned out, I had planned to attend the conference since it was on the East Coast and we could easily drive our motor home there from Virginia. I went to the board and asked them if they would be interested in getting a table. My husband, Richard, and I offered to man it for the chapter
since we both had craft show experience. The
board was all for it. We got busy under the
leadership of our Co-Second Vice Presidents,
Kate Nash and Mary Johnson, producing items
that we thought painters would like. Several of
us made paintbrush holders of all varieties with
fabric purchased with chapter funds. We painted
eyeglass cases and tote bags with themes that
we knew fellow painters would like. We painted
oyster shells that represented our Tidewater
Virginia location. We had sew-ins and paint-ins and worked individually at home to create items to sell. Mary Johnson enlisted the aid of her husband to create easels and painters’ helpers to hold patterns and photos. He even made bottle openers out of screws and scrap wood. We were totally committed to succeed.
Rich loaded up the car that we towed and the extra storage space in the motor home with merchandise, equipment and supplies and headed to Daytona, Florida. We set up our table and then found Miho Halsey and the Volunteer Coordinator to sign up to volunteer. Rich manned the table during the open times and volunteered helping in the art show and in the room with the class samples when the Marketplace was closed. He made lots of friends with the other Marketplace participants. I helped when I wasn’t taking fabulous classes and helping as a teller at the elections. It was a wonderful experience. We cleared over $1,000 for our chapter! What a hit! It was so successful that we got a table at the 2018 conference.
Unlike the previous year, we were the only chapter to sign up for a Marketplace table, but the SDP leadership rewarded our loyalty and effort by allowing us to set
up in the Expo. The other vendors could not have been more supportive. We quickly made lasting friendships because of our experience at the SDP Conference. We also made a great deal of money again for our treasury which allows us to provide two seminars a year for our members at greatly reduced fees. We are also able to support our community service projects without asking our members for additional funds. The moral of our story is to take advantage of opportunities that fall your way and
to use your talents. Painters are extremely creative and talented people. We tapped into that creativity and skills to make our fundraising efforts successful.
DECORATIVEPAINTERS.ORG 9
NewEnglandTraditions.org