Heart and Sole Prospects

Hello Group!

I am very excited about our up coming event and I am certain it will be a success! I think we should really think BIG and try to exhaust every possible resource and idea for donations.

I have few thoughts to get hopefully get us started on prospects for donations. In regards to the shoes donations (I think the size logistics are still being worked on?) I think we should all work together to create a large prospect list. This should include designer shoes, celebrity shoes, shoes from movies/tv shoes, athletes and shoes from local stores. In regards to celebrities, I think it would be helpful to put somewhat of an emphasis on women and those who use their fame to aid philanthropic endeavors. Also, I think we should try to find celebrities from Nebraska and/or the Heartland. For example, Nick Nolte was born in Omaha and Hilary Swank was born in Lincoln (how fun is that?!) With that, trying to find pro sports athletes that are from Nebraska or played at UNL, Mike Minter who is a retired starter of the North Carolina Panthers went to UNL and still has strong ties to Nebraska. There is also that website heelarious.com, which has infant 'high heels' that are just adorable!

For getting donations of designer shoes, I think we have two avenues we could use, one is the actual designer (BCBG, Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Naughty Monkey, Jimmy Choo, etc.) and another would be a retailer (Niemann Marcus, Von Maur, bluefly.com, zappos.com, etc.) I don't think it would hurt to contact both places.

For finding art donations, I think UNL has a great art department and especially their Textiles, Clothing and Design department. Maybe we could find some students or faculty members to create sculptures, photography, paintings or drawings. I think if we especially market to the students about our intended audience at the event. Also, does anyone have a relationship with Kathy LeBaron? She used to be the chair of the board of directors for the Sheldon Art Gallery, I imagine she has some contacts locally for artists that may be interested.

When googling "heart and sole' I found there are a lot of books and calendars available about shoes. One that was particularly interesting looking was Shoes, Shoes, Shoes by Andy Warhol...it was a book of his artwork that contained only shoes. There also a book called Heart and Sole, it's by Jane Eldershaw. So books and/or other items relating to shoes might be popular, I have seen a lot of cute note cards and to-do style papers that are super cute too!

Some other items we could think about getting donated are gift certificates for shoe repairs, bronzing of infant shoes, pedicures (which of course would go great with a set of peep-toe pumps!) and other spa related foot care.

These are just some things to think about, I may be completely off track and we may just want to do shoes and art...but just some things to consider. I think we shouldcreate a google doc with prospects and contact information so we can do a mail merge for prospect letters (I would create it...but I don't know how).

Also, one other idea I had (and there may not be enough time), if we could get something going soon with the UNL textile, clothing and design department our 'entertainment' of the night could be a student shoe fashion show. I know we don't have a whole lot of time and this would take some work. But I didn't know if we had anything else in mind for entertainment. And also the more we could get this department involved, they may suggest some of their alumni to contact for donations. I know a graduate from the program that now works in NYC for Hydraulic jeans so I am going to follow up with her to see how she could help.

Let me know your thoughts and how to proceed, I have a huge list of designer shoes that I can add once a google doc is ready. Thanks!