The Annual Dinner is over, and the night was a success from my point of view. The PowerPoint presentation I put together (and re-made at the last minute) looked good, and more importantly, the video went over very well.
During the day on Thursday the staff gathered at the hall to set up, and I did another test run of the DVD. Up until this point many of the staff members had not seen the movie. Their reactions to it were encouraging to me and made me feel that the video was true to the mission of the organization. One staff woman named Cathy continued to comment throughout the afternoon and evening on the details of the film - the visual theme, specific song lyrics, the way some photographs were taken - and I appreciated that she noticed these things.
On the night of the Dinner, the AV point person did not start the DVD at the beginning. It took him several tries to start it at the beginning, and I tried very hard to keep my cool about this. John, Ann's husband, told me that I shouldn't be upset about it because it was a good thing in a way since the false starts quieted the crowd. He said I should be glad that no one missed a single second of the video.
When the movie was over John came up to me and complimented the film. He went on to tell me that he watched Lauretta, one of the program members at Julie's, while she watched herself on the projection screen. He is an educator, and speaking from that point of view, he said that he actually saw her grow and become more of the person she is on the path to becoming. It's neat to think I could have played a small part in that.
Another highlight of the evening was hearing Elizabeth, a Julie's graduate, share about her life and what it is that Julie's gave her. She was very vulnerable in the personal details she shared, and her boyfriend (and her daughter's father) was there to support her. I also had a lot of fun hanging out with the moms outside of Julie's, which is school atmosphere for them.
Either today or tomorrow I will meet with Sister Jean, Sister Louise, and Bob to discuss where I am going from here.
During the day on Thursday the staff gathered at the hall to set up, and I did another test run of the DVD. Up until this point many of the staff members had not seen the movie. Their reactions to it were encouraging to me and made me feel that the video was true to the mission of the organization. One staff woman named Cathy continued to comment throughout the afternoon and evening on the details of the film - the visual theme, specific song lyrics, the way some photographs were taken - and I appreciated that she noticed these things.
On the night of the Dinner, the AV point person did not start the DVD at the beginning. It took him several tries to start it at the beginning, and I tried very hard to keep my cool about this. John, Ann's husband, told me that I shouldn't be upset about it because it was a good thing in a way since the false starts quieted the crowd. He said I should be glad that no one missed a single second of the video.
When the movie was over John came up to me and complimented the film. He went on to tell me that he watched Lauretta, one of the program members at Julie's, while she watched herself on the projection screen. He is an educator, and speaking from that point of view, he said that he actually saw her grow and become more of the person she is on the path to becoming. It's neat to think I could have played a small part in that.
Another highlight of the evening was hearing Elizabeth, a Julie's graduate, share about her life and what it is that Julie's gave her. She was very vulnerable in the personal details she shared, and her boyfriend (and her daughter's father) was there to support her. I also had a lot of fun hanging out with the moms outside of Julie's, which is school atmosphere for them.
Either today or tomorrow I will meet with Sister Jean, Sister Louise, and Bob to discuss where I am going from here.
Labels: Annual Dinner
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