The group also enjoyed wavers featuring right fielder Michael Cuddyer, which were provided by Animal Fair/Sports & Entertrainment.

The Hilger Philanthropist Club held their fourth annual “Best of Hilger” Talent Show on March 11th. The show is held every year to raise money for the Chattanooga Cheerful Givers pilot program which serves the Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Northwest Georgia area. Last year’s theme for the show was New York City, this year’s was “Light and Color.” The stage was decorated with brightly colored panels, illuminated by colored lights, bearing resemblance to a Rubik’s cube.

This year, the show was conducted under new leadership. Virginia Rickard, 17, former club Vice President,  now President, who grabbed the reins to ensure that everything fell into place. Speaking about her first time running the show, Virginia says, “It was very different to be the head coordinator of the talent show. I didn’t expect there to be nearly as many details to take care of!”

“It’s probably Hilger’s favorite event! We’ve made it into a great annual tradition for a great cause, and I think that’s something to be proud of,” said James Burke, 17, club secretary.

“People were really excited about the show,” said Jack Varnell, 16, club member and MC for the night. Over the years, the show has continually seen an increase in attendance each year. “The whole venue was filled,” said Virginia. At the end of the night, the club raised over $800 from admission, raffle tickets, and concessions, which will be used specifically to propel their Cheerful Givers pilot program.

Highlights  include:

• M.A. Rosko from Fox 9 will MC
• Singer/Guitarists  Tim Mahoney & Jeff James
• Minnesota Roller Girls
• Miss Minnesota 2009
• Former Minnesota Viking Matt Blair & Viking Cheerleaders
• Minnesota Blizzard players
• Members of the U.S. Army
• Buzz the Minnesota Swarm mascot
• Cheering competition between local high school groups
• Coloring contests
• Face painting
• Memento photos

This is a free event but donations will be appreciated — and some matching funds are being provided by Thrivent Financial.

Also:  A Book Fair will be held throughout the day at the Barnes and Noble. More details.

Each year the Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation continues to advance its mission of improving communities and impacting lives through meaningful philanthropic programs that support children, families, animals and the environment.  We are proud to be one of their “best friends.”

We’re pleased to announce that our pre-match total was $2,666!

We couldn’t have done it without the generous support of our donors. Thank you all for helping us continue putting birthday smiles on the faces of underprivileged children in the year ahead.

Another fantastic idea comes from one of our donors (her tweet is shown to the right).  She not only promoted the campaign to her Twitter followers, but came up with a clever way to justify the cost.

Have you used any creative ways to support us or another nonprofit via social media? We’d love to hear about it.

We’ve been thrilled with the response so far, but we still have work to do and need your help. To reach the goal we need to continue our efforts.

Here are some suggestions to spread the word:

• Promote the fundraiser in your status updates on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo or IM client.
• Tweet about it. We have pre-formatted examples on the Social Summer Fundraiser page.
• Write a blog post about the campaign. Feel free to use this logo. Please send us a link to your post so we can blog about it too.
• Put our ChipIn widget on your blog using these simple instructions.
• Add a message and a link to your personal email signature. (ex.  Help parents living in poverty give their child a birthday gift. Support Cheerful Givers’ Social Summer Fundraiser:  http://www.cheerfulgivers.org/socialsummer/)
• Share the campaign page (http://www.cheerfulgivers.org/socialsummer/) on Facebook. Easy to do with one click on the Social Summer Fundraiser page.

Do you have any other ideas? We’d love to hear them. Please share them in the comments section.

It’s been just over one week since we launched the Social Summer Fundraiser, our first online-only campaign. We’ve raised a quarter of our goal so far and have been incredibly pleased with the initial response from fans and supporters.  If you have been meaning to donate and just haven’t gotten around to it, this is the perfect opportunity.

We’d need your help to spread the word about the fundraiser to your friends, especially those on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. We’ve made it easy to do this via links and buttons already encoded with your message of support and a link to the donation page. In a few clicks you can share this information with your network and help us continue to provide birthday bags for children in need.

Please visit the Social Summer Fundraiser page for more information

We need your help to spread the word across social networks you belong to. We even have simple links already set up to promote it on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and your own website or blog.

Visit the Social Summer Fundraiser page for more information